Am I Heartless?
by Jazzerman
Summary: A young man shows up on Destiny islands and seems to be a target for the Heartless. However he seems to have... Antennas? Warning, possible spoilers for KH2. Read and review!
1. What an introduction

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I DO own the OCs. If you'd like to use them in a fic, just tell me. 

Author's note: This fic takes place after Kingdom hearts 2 and will contain some sotryline spoilers, so if you haven't beaten the game yet this is your last warning. Yes... I got the game the first day it came out and beat it 3 days later... I have no life.

Am I Heartless?

Part 1

Sora was sitting on the beach of the destiny islands looking up at the clouds. He had just helped defeat Xemnas, the Nobody of Xehanort and the rest of Organization XIII. The sun was shining bright and the gentle sound of the waves breaking on the beach was so calming that Sora felt himself slowly going to sleep.

"Hey Sora." Came a cheerful voice. Startling the young man enough to make him jump to his feet, slip on the loose sand, and fall face first to the ground all in a matter of seconds.

Sora spat out some sand and looked up to see his long time friend. An embarrassed smile crept onto the youth's face. "Oh, Hi Kairi..."

Kairi placed her hand over her mouth in an attempt to surpress a giggle. And failed. Despite herself she sighed happily. The Heartless had disappeared, Organization XIII and Xemus were gone, the doors between worlds were open so Donald and Goofy could come and go as they wanted, but most importantly both Sora and Riku were back.

"What were you thinking about?" Kairi asked, always straight to the point.

"Just things that have happened. Our past adventures and the friends we made along the way. New and Old." Sora said as he sat back down on the beach and dusted the sand out of his spiky hair with a fair amount of success.

"Oh? Like who?" Kairi asked, sitting down next to Sora.

"Well there's Mulan, Beast, Ariel, Tron, Auron, Yuffie, Cid, Aerith, Merlin, Pooh, Tarzan, Jack... I just wonder how they're doing and hoping they're well." Sora said, looking back up at the sky. "But after everything that's happened I can say this: I'm kinda glad that things have quieted down."

Kairi smiled and scooted up next to Sora. He had grown up some since she had seen him a year ago. Even if he was still essentially the same sentimental kid at heart. But that's what made him such a good friend and probably why he had saved everyone on two occasions. Kairi sighed and looked up at the clouds with Sora for what seemed to her like a very long time. However their cloud watching was interrupted by something black caught the corner of both their eyes.

They turned to see a young person laying lifeless on the beach. As they came closer to check on the young man's well being they saw that it was a young man, about their age being somewhere between fifteen and seventeen. He was wearing a black t shirt under a zipped up red vest with and black flame ridges along the corners, black pants with red lines down the sides, black spiked wrist bands, and black shoes resembling Sora's own brand. On his head was a pair of red headphones and a blank black baseball cap that hid all but a few strands of black hair.

Kairi knelt down and placed two fingers on the young man's neck, checking his pulse. "He's alive... Hey are you okay?" Kairi asked as she gave him a gentle shake.

The young man gave no response as Kairi's shakes rocked him back and forth.

Kairi gave a tired breath. This wasn't going to be a typical day. "Sora, can you give me a hand? We need to get him inside."

"Yeah. Here." Sora grabbed the young man by the shoulders and lifted him up, giving Kairi time to grab his legs.

Together the two carried their 'guest' into the nearby seaside shack and laid him on a pile of hay they sometimes used when they wanted to sleep here on the island instead of returning home. They then took a seat on some crates to use as stools and leaned against the wall.

"This guy sure has a thing for black." Sora and Kairi both turned to see a silver haired youth wearing a yellow vest and blue pants.

"Oh hi Riku." Kairi said, her normally happy face wore. Riku was one of the two people who she had missed deeply in the last year. "I've never seen him before... Have either of you?"

Riku shook his head and leaned against the adjacent wall. "His face doesn't ring any bells."

Sora scratched his head and looked again at the teen laying on the crude bed of straw and shook his head. "I've never seen him before either."

Kairi sighed. "Well where do you think he came from?"

Riku and Sora looked at each other, then back at Kairi and shrugged.

Kairi huffed and rolled her eyes. "You two can be totally useless sometimes."

Just then he young man drowsily opened his eyes and sat up, looking at his rescuers with a great deal of curiosity. Without a word he sprang to his feet and got into a defensive stance.

"Relax, we aren't gonna hurt you." Riku said, the familiar sound of superiority in his voice. He didn't understand why the young man seemed so agitated.

Sora nodded. "We found you unconscious on the beach and brought you in here..."

The young man looked back and forth at the three people who saved his life and nervously inched towards the door. From the look on his face all three could tell he was completely terrified of... Them?

"You're on an island." Riku stated calmly. "One we've spent our whole childhood on. You think you could hide here from us?"

The teenager in black and red looked like he was about to burst into tears for a second then ran out the door.

"Well that was strange." Sora said. "What you think was his problem?"

Kairi hung her head slightly. Her eyes showed concern for this newcomer to the Destiny Islands. "I dunno. But he seemed scared of us."

"Scared of us?" Riku questioned, raising an eyebrow at Kairi. "I can understand him maybe being a little intimidated of me but why would anyone be scared of Sora?"

Sora gave his white haired friend a friendly jab on the shoulder. "Knock it off Riku. We should go look for him."

Riku nodded in agreement. "Yeah, he's probably in shock or something. We should try to get him to a hospital or someone who could give him a look over."

Sora and Kairi agreed but before they could walk out Wakka, Tidus, and Selphie all burst into the shack.

"Guys, these weird... THINGS just appeared out of nowhere and attacked us. We tried to fight'em off but nothing seems to work on 'em." Tidus said, out of breath.

Riku and Sora exchanged mixed looks. Silently they prayed it wasn't what they thought it was. Not after what they had just been through a week ago.

The two Keyblade bearers nodded to each other. "You guys stay here. We'll check on things outside." Riku said.

Sora and Riku headed out the door and shocked to see a small group of Shadow Heartless, small pudgy black creatures with antennae that never seemed to stop twitching, These things were the weakest and most common of all Heartless. Soldier Heartless, although not nearly as common as Shadows these Heartless were weren't as annoying since they lacked the Shadow's ability to go '2-D' and slip by most attacks. And floating along side the small group of Soldiers and Shadows there were a few Red Nocturnes, small airborne Heartless that seemed completely free of gravity. They wore small red robes and a mage's pointy straw hat and possessed relatively weak fire magic compared to other Heartless. All together this was a group of low class Heartless, not too much of a problem for skilled fighters like Riku and Sora.

Riku summoned 'Way to the Dawn' and Sora likewise called 'Kingdom Key' and were about to charge the Heartless when they realized the Heartless weren't even paying attention to them. They were struggling with something they had surrounded and pinned to the ground.

"Get off of me!" An unfamiliar voice called out from under the Heartless, a few Shadows were knocked away by a thrashing arm with a spiked wrist band on it.

"That has to be our new 'friend'." Riku said, brandishing his 'Way to the Dawn' Keyblade.

Sora nodded and leapt, coming down on a Soldier and vanquishing it with ease. The Heartless, now aware of the Keybladers, turned their aggression towards Riku and Sora. Riku easily took out two Soldiers and a Shadow with a quick combo.

Sora and Riku continued their attacks, making quick work of the Heartless. Thinning their already small numbers proved to be almost child's play after fighting powerful Nobodies like the Organization.

"AH! I'm on fire!" Riku and Sora turned to see that one of the Red Nocturne's fire spells had hit the guy in red and black. He quickly tossed his headphones aside, took off his red vest and hat, and began to stomp out the flames. Sora and Riku saw that he wasn't hurt and quickly finished off the final Heartless. After making sure that no more were around they approached the young man.

"Hey, you okay?" Riku asked.

The teen in red and black hid his face and turned away from the Keybladers. "Please don't look at me!"

Irritated at this teen's response to their gallant rescue, Riku grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around. "Now look! Why were those Heartless attacking... You...?"

Both Riku and Sora stared in shock and wonder at the sight of the young man's facial features. He had yellow eyes, not that that was totally unusual but the thing that made Riku and Sora stare was the two long black antennas that hung in front of his face and constantly wiggled like worms. On the chest of his T-shirt was the Heartless insignia.

To be continued...


	2. My name is

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I DO own the OCs. If you'd like to use them in a fic, just tell me.

Am I Heartless?

Part 2

Sora and Riku stared at the young man as Kairi and the others ran up to congratulate them on a job well done.

"Riku, Sora, man that was awesome! I bet those things won't be back any...time...soon..." Wakka stuttered to a halt when he saw what the young man they had saved looked like.

"Okay buddy, what are you? A Heartless?" Riku said, pointing the 'Way to the dawn' Keyblade at their visitor.

The young man stared in absolute terror of Riku's weapon. All Heartless have a natural fear of the Keyblade, and this young man was no exception.

"Riku put it down! You're scaring him!" Kairi exclaimed. She may have saved this young man's life and she didn't want to just see him have to be destroyed like the Nobodies or like the Heartless that Sora and Riku had just slain.

"Kairi if he IS a Heartless then he may just attack us later on." Riku said turning his attention to the teenager in front of him. The young man's antennae were now perfectly still and staring straight at the 'Way to the dawn' in utter dread. "Now out with it. Who are you and what are you?" Riku finished by gently poking the young man in the chest with the end of his Keyblade.

Much to everyone's surprise when the 'Way to the Dawn' touched his shirt it made a sound faintly reminiscent of bacon sizzling in a frying pan. The young man gave a half human cry of pain and fell backwards onto the sand, clenching is chest as if he had been burned.

"Riku!" Sora shot a glare at his friend and dropped his Keyblade to help Kairi help the young man up.

'That's never happened before...' Riku thought as he brought his Keyblade closer to him to inspect it. It didn't look any different than when they fought with Xemnas, was this some new power or just how it reacted to this young man.

Kairi and Sora meanwhile had helped the young man up and had his arms over their shoulders helping him stand.

"Hey, are you okay?" Kairi asked, as always caring more for others than herself.

The young man seemed very uncomfortable being touched by either Sora or Kairi, but that was just a guess since the two antennae that draped down the front of his face were now wiggling erratically.

"No... I'm not alright." The young man said, his voice was filled with a mixture of fear and sadness.

"Well, we'll get you to a doctor and he'll get a look at you." Kairi said, patting him gently on the cheek.

That touch to the face wasn't appreciated however. The teen's eyes glazed over for a second and he shoved both Sora and Kairi away and took off.

"Kairi, Sora!" Riku called out as he and the gang ran up to check on his life long friends. "Did he hurt either of you?"

"No, he just pushed me away." Kairi said. "What about you Sora?"

While Kairi had managed to keep her balance, Sora had fallen face first into the sand and was now spitting out a mouthful of the grainy stuff. "I just ate some sand, nothing too bad."

"He took off towards the Cove dudes. Should we follow him?" Tidus asked, hefting his old wooden sword. He had kept it here on the island all these years.

Riku nodded. "Yeah, but if he really is a Heartless then we should go find him."

"We'll all go. But I'M going to be the one who talks to him." Kairi said sternly. "He seemed like he was scared of the Keyblade and from what it did to him in just a quick touch it's not hard to wonder why."

"Yeah. But you really think he's a Heartless?" Sora asked. "I mean he could just be wearing a shirt with the Heartless symbol on it."

"Then what about those antennas on his head?" Riku said, raising an eyebrow at the spiky haired kid next to him.

Sora put his arms behind his head and rolled his eyes. "I've met mermaids, skeletons, computer programs, and more monsters than I can count. I'd be willing to believe there are people out there with antennae."

"You have a point but he looks like a Heartless to me. And unless I'm proven otherwise I am going to see him as a possible threat." Riku didn't mean to sound cruel, he was just thinking logically. Better to be prepared against a possible enemy than be hurt trying to make friends. Trusting and acting naive was Sora's department.

Sora picked up the headphones and was surprised to hear that they were still working even after being singed by a fire spell and being soaked in seawater. He mentally shrugged and put them on.

"What was he listening to Sora?" Selphie asked.

"I dunno. I've never heard this song before but it sounds very sad." Sora said, taking off the headphones and putting them in the item pack that hung off his belt.

"Come on, he went towards the Cove, if we hurry we could catch him."

The gang ran along together towards the Cove until they came to the first grove of palm trees. There sitting on the sand leaning up against one of the palm trees with his hands on his knees was the teen. Before they could even take a step he hastily backed away until he hit the sheer cliff wall. Staring terrified at the group of teenagers.

Kairi stepped forward. "You guys stay here. I'll talk to him."

"Kairi, you sure about this?" Sora asked.

The red headed girl frowned turned to face Sora. "I'm not the little girl who needs protecting anymore Sora. That goes for you too Riku."

"He could be dangerous." Riku stated flatly. Ignoring what Kairi had just said.

Kairi shook her head. "I don't think so. If he was why didn't he just attack me or Sora when we helped him up? And if he IS a heartless why would the Heartless attack him? This just doesn't add up."

Sora nodded. "Just be careful Kairi, if something goes wrong we're right behind you."

Kairi smiled at Sora and slowly walked over to tiny grove of palm trees the young man was hiding in. The look in the young man's eyes was that of a cornered animal. Deciding on the safe approach she walked only to the edge of the grove, giving the young man a decent sized berth so he wouldn't feel threatened.

"Please... Just leave me alone..." The teen said, cowering in the shadows like a traumatized child hiding from a school yard bully.

"Hey... Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you..." Kairi said softly. She cautiously took steps toward him until she stood just beyond the palm tree that stood as a midway point.

"I'm sorry I pushed you, but I didn't want to hurt you... Everyone around me gets hurt eventually..." He turned his face to look her in the eye. Kairi could see his face was stained with tears and more were coming from his yellow eyes. The sight of them along with those long antennae reminded her of the Heartless alright. But he didn't seem scary, in fact at the time being his whole person seemed to scream 'I'm scared of you'. Kairi couldn't help but feel a little sorry for him.

Kairi hid the pity and sympathy she felt and put on a cheerful face for him. "My name's Kairi, What's your name?"

"My name?" He asked, seemingly surprised that she really cared to know it.

"You know... What people call you?" Sora added. Trying to mimic Kairi's cheerful tone.

"... My name is Orin..." The young man hung his head. Why was he telling her this? More importantly why did she care? Normally people just screamed and ran from him or attacked him.

"Orin? That's a nice name." Kairi grinned. Glad that she was getting somewhere with him. "Look, I promise we won't hurt you. Please come out..."

Orin looked like he wanted to believe her but he was still hesitating. Kairi decided a new plan was needed and began to take steps towards Orin who backed up against the sheer rock wall.

"Why are you so scared?" Kairi asked, now standing right in front of him.

"I... I can hear your heart..." Orin's antennas were dancing on his forehead, excited by Kairi's presence.

Kairi blinked. "Why would that bother you? Are you a Heartless?"

"I don't know what I am." Orin muttered, looking at his hands. They looked like a normal human hands, but the long rubbery antennas that hung in front of him were a constant reminder that he wasn't normal.

"Were those Heartless after you?" Kairi asked.

Orin was touched by how concerned she sounded for him. For that at least she deserved a few answers. "Yeah. But I don't know why they were chasing me..."

'Hmm... Stranger and stranger...' Kairi thought, giving Orin a look over again. Could it be because he really is a Heartless? "We'd like to help you but you have to let us. You have to trust us."

Orin looked past Kairi and over at Riku. "Well... Can you promise to keep the white haired one away from me?"

"Who Riku?" Kairi said as she glanced back at Riku for a second to show she was still irked at him for making Orin freak out. "Don't mind him. He was trapped in the realm of darkness and he has a very low opinion of anything that reminds him of that place. But I promise not to let him do anything."

Orin wiped his eyes and stood up. Slowly he shambled towards Kairi until he was within about five feet of her. In Kairi's opinion it was a more comfortable distance for a conversation. He still looked sad in Kairi's eyes, but he also looked like he would give her, her friends, and her word a chance.

"Kairi?" Orin asked, his yellow eyes locked on to her blue ones.

"Yes?" Kairi responded, not sure what he wanted from her.

For the first time since they met Orin smiled. It was small but it was visible none the less. "Thanks... And I hope can trust the rest of your friends."

Orin began to make his way over to the rest of the gang. Riku, Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie could feel their muscles tense up as he approached them. The three who had stayed on the island had been enraptured with stories of their adventures and of the vicious Heartless and the dangerous Nobodies.

"Hi..." Orin said nervously, giving Riku cautious looks. Silently praying that he'd keep his weapon away from him. "I'm Orin."

"Hi. I'm Sora." Sora blurted out, super pleased that they didn't have to fight and he made a new friend. "These are my friends Riku, Wakka, Selphie, and Tidus."

Orin nodded and looked at each of them. They looked like nice people. Except for that white haired Keyblade wielder. Something about him gave Orin the creeps. Something about the way he looked at him. It was like his eyes were trying to pierce right through him like a drill.

"I like your antennas." Selphie said, desperately trying to pick up a conversation. "Do they always um... 'wiggle' like that?"

Orin looked a little hurt by Selphie's reference to his least favorite facial features and grabbed them in an attempt to keep them from moving. However the tips that were sticking out of the bottom of his closed fists wiggled like a worm on a hook. "They never stop..." He whined.

Selphie giggled. Whether it was meant as a joke or not she still found it to be comical. Selphie didn't think he looked dangerous, sure he had the Heartless symbol on his shirt but in a way he reminded her of Sora just now.

Tidus and Wakka reminded silent but smiled and nodded their introductions. Riku however just stared narrow eyed at Orin.

Kairi meanwhile, despite all her memories of her encounters with the Heartless smiled at Orin as he introduced himself to the gang. This young man just couldn't be a Heartless. He was gentle, and no Heartless was gentle.

To be continued...


	3. Getting to know you

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I DO own the OCs. If you'd like to use them in a fic, just tell me.

Am I Heartless?

Part 3

Orin wasn't too pleased at the glare Riku was shooting him from across the room. But presently he was preoccupied with the questions he was being bombarded with from the other members of the group.

"Please... one at a time. You're making my head spin." Orin said as he held his head. He felt a migraine beginning to swell like a balloon in his skull. However before anyone could say anything a loud rumble echoed through the room.

Orin placed a hand on his stomach and gave his 'hosts' a nervous smile that seemed to add to his look of embarrassment. "Um, this is kinda embarrassing but do you have anything to eat? I'm kinda hungry."

"There's some Paopu fruit outside on one of the palm trees outside." Selphie said. "Other than that all the food we have here is fish, mushrooms, coconuts. Anything other than that is back in the house."

"Mushrooms? Ick..." Orin said, giving them a disgusted look. "I hate mushrooms. And I don't want to trouble you by asking you to gather a coconut and crack it open or catch and cook some fish so I'll ask for the easiest one. That 'Paopu fruit' you talked about."

"It's okay. I don't particularly like mushrooms either. Gimmie a second and I'll bring you one." With that Sora disappeared out the door and soon returned with a single Paopu fruit. The spiky haired youth tossed it to Orin, who caught it rather clumsily in his lap. "We don't eat those everyday. Paopu trees take a long time to bear fruit."

Orin nodded in acknowledgement and looked at the bizarre star shaped fruit that Sora had given him. He wasn't sure if he had to peel it like an orange or if he could just bite into it like an apple. But after beginning to feel uncomfortable from the amused looks of the islanders, who could see he wasn't sure how to eat what to them was a well known food Orin bit into one of the fleshy fruit's corners. The taste was like some kind of cross between an orange and a lemon, very sweet and sour at the same time. Orin felt the hairs on his head tingle as the strong taste overwhelmed his unwarned taste buds and made him shudder. He would've spat it out if he wasn't so hungry, besides Orin happened to like sour foods.

"So where are you from?" Sora asked. "I mean we've never seen you around here before."

Orin swallowed a mouthful of Paopu fruit and snorted. "Well I was born in a place called Radiant garden. Heh, in some sick way you could even say I born twice there."

"Don't you mean Hallow bastion?" Riku asked as he raised an eyebrow. Proving he had been listening to the conversation.

Sora shook his head. "No, after we destroyed the MCP Aerith and the others went back to calling the town by its original name, Radiant Garden."

Orin coughed on his second bite of Paopu fruit. "You've been there?"

"Yeah. Me, Riku, and Kairi were there just before we defeated Xehanort's Heartless." Sora said. "Then me and my friends Donald and Goofy went back there to find out Cloud, Cid, Aerith, Yuffie and all the others were working on restoring the town after the Heartless tore up."

Orin felt hurt at this news. Hearing that the same creatures that attacked him had wrecked his home town was something of a shock. Orin looked at the floor for s second before glaring at the cursed wiggling antennas that hung down in front of his face. They could be very distracting at times.

"Tell us a bit about yourself." Wakka said, trying to get things back in motion. "We don't get many visitors 'round here."

"Well... In my opinion self description is often very biased and therefore not very accurate but okay... I'm seventeen, I'm introverted, normally quiet and reserved but if around people I like I can open up." Orin ended with a weak smile. "Your turn, I've told you about me now I want to hear about you guys."

Kairi nodded and stood up. "Well, I'm Kairi and these are my friends. Me and Sora were the ones who found you on the beach and brought you back here to rest."

Orin gave Kairi a small smile. He barely knew her yet he could already tell she was a very nice person. Something he hadn't seen in what felt like a long time. Sora gave him a similar feeling but the Key blade that he wielded still made him nervous. The three who were sitting against the wall seemed nice but they looked as if they weren't sure about what to think about Orin, must've been his unique anatomy. Riku however still creeped him out with that those cold look in his eyes. Plus the fact that he had a Key blade made it even worse.

"Yeah," Sora said. "But at least you're okay. Even after being washed up in your shape and then being attacked by Heartless you're very lucky."

"Lucky? Not really." Orin stated flatly. Not looking at anyone except the floor. "I have no idea exactly where I am, I've been attacked by Heartless and the white haired guy, I've been set on fire, nearly drowned, I've got sand in my socks, my vest was the only thing hiding this damned mark on chest and it's ruined along with my hat and possibly worst of all my headphones are wrecked."

Riku flinched a little. Did he really come off THAT fierce?

"Oh wait a sec..." Sora dug around in his item pouch and pulled out the red headphones. "I picked these up after you left. They still work. By the way what song was it playing?"

Orin looked pleased that Sora had saved his headphones and gratefully took them back, placing them around his neck. "I dunno. I just downloaded a bunch of songs off the computer back at Radiant garden. I never looked at the names of the songs."

"Well I liked the one I heard." Sora said, glad to see Orin was cheered up by the return of his headphones.

"So why do you have... You know..." Sora asked, brining his fingers up to his forehead and imitating Orin's antennas with his index fingers.

Bad memories resurfaced in Orin's mind, he shook his head as if to shoo them away. "I'd rather not talk about it right now..."

Sora was about to push him to talk when Kairi shot him a look and shook her head, indicating he shouldn't. At least not now anyway.

"Okay then. Then tell us if why you're wearing the Heartless symbol." Riku asked, the harsh tone he used sent shivers down Orin's spine.

Orin felt that the white haired guy wasn't going to try to make friends with him like the others were trying to do. Still he felt like he should give him an answer of some sort. Maybe that would make him stop giving him that look. "Why do you think I was hiding it under that vest?" Orin then pointed over to his scorched vest and hat that were lying on the floor in the corner.

Riku glanced over at the ruined garments then back at Orin. "Okay. But I still want to hear you say why you're wearing the symbol of the monsters that nearly shrouded all the worlds in darkness."

Orin sat up and rolled his eyes. "I guess I'll just have to show you." Orin took off his black T shirt, momentarily showing them all the burn mark Riku's Keyblade had made and flipped it around so he was wearing it backwards. The part of Orin's chest where the Heartless logo had been suddenly appeared in a red glow. Now the symbol was on both the front and back of his shirt.

Sora blinked in surprise. "Woah... That was kinda cool. So why didn't it appear on your vest when you had it zipped up?"

Orin quickly flipped his shirt back the other side and looked at Sora. "I dunno... My guess is it may have something to do with the zipper but that's a pure guess."

"Orin, if you were born in Radiant garden do you know our friends there?" Kairi asked.

Orin scratched his head, his antennas seemed to wiggle a little more than usual as he tried to remember his home. "Could you give me their names? That may help."

"Okay..." Sora picked up for Kairi, she hadn't met his friends there so he had to be the one to name them. "Well there's Aerith, Cloud, Yuffie, Cid, Leon, Tifa..."

"Yuffie and Aerith ring some bells..." Orin said, his eyes were closed as he tried to remember faces from his past. "Is Aerith a young girl with black hair and has the energy that could rival a hurricane?"

Sora laughed at that. "No that's Yuffie. Aerith is a real gentle young lady with long brown hair."

Orin flinched at his mistake. "I remember Aerith used to run a small flower shop, I used to live not far from it when I was a kid. She was always real nice."

Riku got up from his position at the "Okay that explains a little. But why are the Heartless back and why are they after you?"

Orin shook his head tiredly. "I don't know. I've been running from them for a long time now. But before I forget, I'm sorry I pushed you two."

"It's okay. No harm no foul. You were just scared that's all." Sora said. "Everyone gets scared once in a while."

Orin once more shook his head. "Yeah I was scared but I wasn't scared of you. I was scared of me."

There was a similar look of 'Huh?' among the islanders. The young man didn't make any sense with that last statement.

Orin could see from their puzzled looks that they didn't understand and were patiently waiting for him to explain. "You see, I don't know how but I can hear people's hearts. Like right now I can hear every heart in this room. No offence but there's a part of me that feels uncomfortable when I hear the sound of hearts beating."

Kairi blinked, beginning to understand Orin's actions at last. "And that's the reason you pushed us away and ran off?"

"Partially," Orin said, "but the main reason is I felt your heart beat when you patted my face Kairi... Hearing a heartbeat is bad enough but when someone touches me it's like something stirs inside me and makes me feel like attacking anything that has a heart. That's why I ran."

Riku raised an eyebrow. "So you ran because you didn't want to hurt Kairi?"

Orin nodded slowly. Orin knew that this was a mistake telling them all this but he couldn't stand keeping this information to himself anymore. He needed to tell someone these things or else he might explode. Running in fear had finally caught up with him as he felt tears beginning to form behind his yellow eyes.

"So as long no one touches you you're okay right?" Tidus asked.

Orin sniffed and wiped tears from his face, trying to regain a little composure at the very least. It felt good to let that out after locking up those thoughts and feelings for so long "Yeah, as long as the Heartless don't come back."

"Obviously," Riku said flatly. "But now I have a question. You said you could hear hearts. Can you hear yours?"

Orin looked over at Riku. The young man looked to be about his age but there was something about his eyes that made him appear much older. Only large amounts of mental woe, anguish, and suffering could age a man beyond his years. Could this be true in the case of with this 'Riku'? "Yes I can. I can hear a heart beating in my chest. But I seem to have gotten used to hearing the sound of at least one heart."

Riku thought about this. If he was telling the truth then the danger was small. But when it came to creatures of darkness like the Heartless there was always the possibility of deceit. However this young man didn't seem like a Heartless but at the same time he had many things in common with them. He had similar anatomy to the Heartless. The antennas on his head were like those of the Shadows, the weakest and most numerous of the Heartless. His eyes weren't round and blank like the Shadows but the iris's of Orin's eyes were just as yellow. Then there was the mark on his chest that refused to be hidden... There was much about this young man that didn't make sense.

Tidus yawned and got up. "Well dudes, you guys can decide on where he's gonna stay. I'm headed back to town before my mother kills me for being late... again."

Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie said their good byes and left as they headed for their homes. Each silently cursing that their parents had them under curfew at their age.

Orin looked out the window to see the sun was just about to set. The blue sky and the blue waters below were just now beginning to turn gold. Soon both sun and sea would be a dazzling sight of red, orange, and yellow. Orin looked forward to seeing it but at the same time dreaded the night that would follow.

To be continued...

A/N: two things I want to point out. On Sora's new outfit there are two red packs on each side of his pants. These are what I think Sora puts all his items he carries. But that's just what I think. The other thing is the song playing on Orin's headphones. If you want it named it's Metallica's 'Nothing Else Matters'. An awesome song by an awesome band.


	4. Attacked

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I DO own the OCs. If you'd like to use them in a fic, just tell me.

Am I Heartless?

Part 4

"Well he can't stay at my place," Sora said casually, "My parents went off when I brought home a puppy, imagine what would happen if I brought Orin home. Especially after I told my parents all about our adventures."

Riku shook his head. "Nothing good I bet. But, I don't know that taking him into town is a good idea in the first place. I mean if the Heartless are after him we don't want to take him to a populated area."

Orin didn't like how these nice people were willing to go out of their way for him. Especially since he was doing nothing in return but be a burden on them. "Excuse me, but it will make you guys happy you can go ahead and go home. I'll stay here tonight."

"But what if the Heartless come after you in the night?" Sora asked, sounding as concerned as one can for someone you hardly know.

In response Orin said the first thing that came to his mind. "Well... I guess I'll run."

"Run where? You're on an island remember?" Riku pointed out.

Orin mentally slapped himself at forgetting such obvious information. "Okay, I have no idea."

Kairi thought for a second then snapped her fingers. "Sora, how about you, me, and Riku camp here to night like we used to and make sure nothing happens?"

Sora smiled and nodded his spiky haired head. "Yeah! Sounds like fun."

Riku smirked and shook his head. "Same old Sora... I'll stay too to make sure neither of you get into trouble."

"Okay!" Kairi cheered, "I'll go tell our parents what's going on. I think they'll understand that we're helping out a friend in need."

"Just be sure not to say anything about Heartless or anything like that." Sora said.

"Wouldn't dream it! I'll be back soon." Kairi said as she ran off towards the docks to sail back to shore.

"She'll be back soon. We better get a fire started. I'll get the fire wood, Sora you keep an eye on our 'friend'."

Sora nodded and watched Riku run off to gather some drift wood. He wasn't worried, Riku could take care of himself if something came up. Sora looked Orin to see that once more he was wearing a very glum look beyond his two wiggling antennas.

"Hey Orin, you okay?" Sora asked.

Orin just turned and shuffled back to the seaside shack. Leaving Sora behind on the beach to wonder what was that all about.

Riku poked at the fire with a stick, moving the drift wood that was the furthest away from the fire into the hot and glowing cinders. Within a few minutes the fire was alive again and sending light to dance along the walls of the shack. The small window on the side was cracked open so the smoke would be sucked out by the cool night air. There wasn't much smoke anyway, the wood was burning very cleanly.

"Listen... I can't thank you enough." Orin said, breaking the silent spell that hung in the air. "You've been much kinder to me than I deserve. Thanks for your hospitality."

"Why should you not deserve it?" Riku asked, his eyes not straying from the flames he had previously tended. "I'm the one who should apologize to you. You don't seem to be a bad person. You've been beached, attacked by Heartless, and on top of that I've been acting like a jerk just because you're... different."

Orin smirked, the way Riku had put it somehow seemed comical. Few had called him 'different' before. "No apologies are needed. I understand why you'd think that way. Just promise to keep that Keyblade away from me and we'll call it even."

Riku smiled and nodded. Silently agreeing to Orin's terms as he leaned forward to poke at the fire again to get what little wasn't burning into a pile.

"By the way, how's your chest Orin?" Kairi asked.

Orin grabbed the collar of his shirt and looked down. The burn mark wasn't as bad as it had been but it still looked red and a little swollen. "It stings a little but it doesn't hurt quite as bad as before."

"Good." Riku said as he set his stick down on the floor and laid down on the wooden bench. There were questions about Orin that buzzed around in Riku's head but he decided that they could wait until morning. And if Orin tried anything he would have to break that promise he had just made to him.

"How did you end up in the ocean Orin?"

"I remember running along a dark rocky beach last night being chased by the Heartless..." Orin said, "I remember I jumped into the water and just began to swim out to sea. I was so scared I didn't think about drowning or sharks or anything like that. After what felt like hours I was so tired I passed out. The next thing I know I was laying on that pile of straw over there."

"Dark rocky beach?" Sora mused, turning to Riku. He and Riku had been to a place like that after they defeated Xemnas. Sora leaned towards Riku and whispered so only he could hear. "You think he's talking about that beach we were on in the Realm of darkness?"

Riku considered this for a moment. Even though it was possible it was difficult to say for certain that it was the same beach. "Dunno. It would make sense if the Heartless are after him but for now let's keep this between us."

"Alright, what are you two conspiring about" Kairi demanded, putting her balled fists on her hips.

Both Riku and Sora jerked back and tried to look innocent. Both said "Nothing!" at the exact same moment.

Kairi rolled her eyes in protest but said nothing. She did however yawn as her creeping fatigue catch up with her. "I'm getting sleepy. I'll see you guys in the morning." And with that Kairi laid down on the bench and went to sleep.

Orin saw no reason to argue with reason and sat in the corner, getting as comfortable as possible and quickly settled into a deep sleep of his own.

Sora and Riku sighed, things were certainly getting awkward around here. Riku put out the fire and made sure the doors were locked before coming back to find Sora curled up asleep on the hay stack. Riku shook his head in annoyance that Sora would take the whole stack for himself to sleep on but shrugged it off and laid down next to where the fire had been. Riku smirked when he found that the sandy floor around the fire retained a lot of the residual heat and soon drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Dawn was just beginning to turn to mid day when they awoke. Riku was the first to stretch and rub his eyes before waking up Kairi and Sora, who was the most reluctant to wake up. Orin however was awakened by the sounds of the others grumbling and yawning. Riku had remembered that he shouldn't make physical contact with Orin and had little choice. He either had to allow Orin to wake up on his own or poke him with the stick he had used to poke at the fire, which would have soiled Orin's clothes with ashes and been very rude.

"Morning guys." Kairi said as she covered her mouth and yawned. "Sleep well?"

"I wouldn't have minded a nice soft pillow." Sora said as he rubbed his neck.

Riku gave his childhood friend a jab on the arm. "And maybe you shouldn't have hogged the entire hay stack. I hope you're all itchy."

Sora rubbed his arm and smiled weakly at Riku. "Well maybe I shouldn't have but you didn't have to hit me."

Riku sighed and shook his head. Sora, even after fighting Heartless, Nobodies, the Organization, and the evils of dozens of other worlds he was still the same lazy yet good natured kid that he always had known.

Kairi had thought the exact same thing about Sora, he was still the same after all this time. However she also thought that after they had come back to Destiny islands Riku pretty much returned to his old self. He was once more the group's father figure, he made sure the others weren't being picked on in town but he was no longer the one who had the last say in anything. In Kairi's opinion he still kicked himself a little for giving himself over to darkness but he seemed to be getting over it little by little.

The three of them were soon sitting down to a simple breakfast of fish cooked over an open fire, coconuts, and mushrooms (which Orin avoided like the plague). As they were finishing up and the fire was put out there came a knock just before the door swung open.

"Donald! Goofy! It's good to see you guys again!" Sora said as he was tackled by two of his best friends anywhere.

After a extended period of laughter and a group hug or two Donald and Goofy stood in front of the islanders.

"We don't have time to mess around Sora! We've got problems!" Donald quacked.

Sora blinked. "Something wrong guys?"

Goofy nodded, the funny hat he wore bobbed up and down a little as he did so. "There's Heartless popping up all over the place!"

"What?" Sora exclaimed. "Why are they attacking? We beat Xehanort's Heartless and Xemnas, who could be commanding them now?"

This was a shock to Riku and Kairi as well. Things were already going wrong just after all that they had been through only a few weeks ago. Couldn't they catch a break?

"That's the strange thing." Goofy continued, "They aren't attacking anybody. It's like they're lookin for something..."

"Or someone." Orin said, getting up and walking up to stand next to Sora.

"Who's this clown?" Donald said, brandishing his staff in his hands upon noticing the Heartless mark on Orin's chest.

"Oh yeah, Donald, Goofy, this is my new friend Orin. He showed up this morning and helped us take on a group of Heartless." Sora was lying of course, but he knew if he told Donald what happened he'd have to go to great lengths to get the court magician to understand that Orin wasn't what he seemed.

"Hi..." Orin said weakly, silently he cursed as his antennas squirmed on his forehead. Orin reached up and grabbed hold of them, the ends that stuck out of the end of his clenched hands wiggling with a new ferocity. Finally Orin relinquished with a defeated groan and let go. "It's like they have a mind of their own..."

"Don't worry Orin." Kairi teased, "Those things don't make you look scary. In fact they make you look kinda like a cute little caterpillar."

"Ugh..." Orin shuddered. "I don't know which is worse, being 'cute' or looking like a worm with legs."

Donald wasn't sure about this. Everything about Orin seemed to put him on edge. The way he was dressed, the Heartless mark on his chest and back, the antennas... In Donald's opinion it was better to be cautious.

Goofy however walked up and shook Orin's hand. Luckily the gloves he always wore prevented Orin from being set off by Goofy's pulse. "Hiya Orin, glad to meetcha!"

Orin was shaken up and down by Goofy's powerful handshake and quickly jerked his hand back. "Please don't do that... No offence it's just don't like it when people touch me."

"Oh, Sorry. I was just trying to be friendly." Goofy said.

Orin shook his head. "No harm done. It's nice to meet you both."

"Hey, do you guys hear that?" Riku asked as he stepped up to the group.

The others strained their ears but could hear nothing save for the gentle sounds of the waves breaking on the nearby shore.

"I don't hear anything Riku." Kairi said plainly.

Riku's eyes narrowed. "That's just it. I don't hear any birds, crickets, or anything."

It wasn't long after Riku spoke as Heartless began to pour from the forest further inland. The Heartless were pouring out of the nearby forest like roaches pouring out of a drain pipe. And all of them were heading towards the small group standing on the beach.

"Heartless!" Donald cried out as the small army of Heartless began to surround them.

'Thanks for stating the obvious Donald...' Kairi thought.

"Kairi get back to the shack, now!" Riku ordered as he stepped in front of the group. If anyone was going to get the first shot at these things it would be him.

Kairi did as she was told and ran back to the shack and locked the door just as the Heartless surrounded Rku, Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Kairi knelt down and began to pray silently for her friends, she didn't want this to happen all over again...

The Heartless were all Shadows and Soldiers. The lowest of the Heartless totem pole but it was the sheer numbers that made the gang worry. In small groups these types of Heartless weren't much of a threat but this was more than enough to challenge Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Riku. 'Way to the Dawn' and 'Kingdom Key' were summoned to their respective owners as they both leapt into the fray, breaking down the numbers of Heartless with each swing of their Keyblades.

Donald began with casting Thunder down on the Heartless, taking out a fair number of their ranks. Goofy hoisted his Knight shield and let it fly, bashing its way clear of the gang of Heartless and returning to his hand.

Orin was doing his best to avoid the Heartless despite he was in the center of the entire battle. However the Shadows were too many and soon some of them had grasped onto his left arm and onto his legs, their weight making it easier for the other Heartless to surround him and advance.

"Get off me you mindless things!" Orin cried as he tried to shake the Shadow off of his arm. In a desperate attempt Orin raised his other hand and brought it quickly down on the Heartless, meaning to rake it with his fingernails. To his surprise the Shadow was destroyed, reduced to a black cloud of smoke that quickly vanished in the fresh air. Curious Orin looked as the Heartless around him backed away from him in fear. The ones that had grabbed onto him had also backed off. Orin smirked, pleased that he had struck fear in the Heartless however his sense of accomplishment turned to dread when he looked down and saw that the arm he had swatted at the Heartless was now as black as the Shadow he had attacked and was equipped with very sharp claws on each finger. Now it was Orin's turn to be struck with fear. Old buried questions boiled to the surface as he stared in terror at his transformed appendage. What had happened? Why did he have claws? What was he? Why was this happening to him? Was he a Heartless? Was he no different than these creatures...? Orin was so transfixed on his arm he didn't notice the Heartless were advancing on him again.

"Orin you moron move!"

Orin awoke from his terror induced stupor just in time to see Riku easily breaking through the lines of Shadows with his 'Way to the Dawn' Keyblade. But even Riku was speechless to see Orin's new look. However this lasted only long enough for a Shadow to leap at Riku only to be vanquished by Riku's Keyblade. "Orin get your head together. You and I will talk after we're done here."

Orin nodded as the shock he had received began to wear off. Orin needed an outlet for his anger and these Heartless would prove just what he needed.

To be continued...


	5. Exodus

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I DO own the OCs. If you'd like to use them in a fic, just tell me.

Am I Heartless?

Part 5

As the fight raged on Sora and Riku resorted to using their combined efforts to perform Eternal session, demolishing nearly half of the Heartless upon the combo's finishing move. Donald continued to use his magic to attack the Heartless and defend himself and Goofy, who was his shield to bash any Heartless that got near him. Orin was slashing with his newly acquired claws. However Orin wasn't really fighting because he was being threatened by the Heartless, he was fighting to let out his emotions all at once. Orin felt fear from the Keyblades, anger at the Heartless for chasing him all this way, even the very weapons he was using to use to fight the Heartless filled him with disgust.

With combined efforts of the five fighters the Heartless were soon defeated. Riku and Sora sent their Keyblades away and swapped looks of smug appreciation as they shook hands. Kairi heard no more sounds of battle and walked out to see that everyone was alright. She ran over to Sora and Riku and hugged them both.

"Woah, what was that for?" Riku asked, despite himself he was glad to get a hug from Kairi.

"Just glad to see you both are okay." Kairi said, wiping a worried tear from her eye. "Worrying about you both is going to make me old before my time..."

Sora scratched his head and looked around. "Hey what's with Orin?"

Orin was slumped down onto the sand, his right arm was twitching and spasming as if it wanted to continue to fight even though the Heartless were all gone. Orin quickly ran to the shore and began to vigorously scrub his arm with the cool seawater.

"Maybe... Maybe it's just that black smoke the Heartless give off when they're destroyed... Yeah..." Orin said, his voice was shaky and desperate. He clearly did not want to believe that this was really his arm. "The smoke's just adhered to the sweat on my arm... It'll wash off."

Again and again Orin scrubbed his right arm with his left and each time his did not show any improvement a little more of his hope eroded away. In the back of his mind he knew that even if the smoke had become attached to his arm that wouldn't explain why he had claws. Orin he was now franticly raking his arm with his fingernails and was shaking with fear as he grew more desperate to prove to himself that this wasn't arm. It just couldn't be.

"Orin stop! You're hurt yourself!" Kairi cried as she ran over and shook him by the shoulders, taking care not to touch his bare flesh. She had learned not to do that from last time and if she had done that now in his unstable frame of mind Orin could very well attack her. "You're going to be okay."

Orin stood up and turned to face Kairi, he raised his black clawed hand up to give her a good look at it. "Look at my arm Kairi! I'm not okay!"

"We'll try to help you but you have to calm down." Kairi said, looking Orin in the eye. "I promise okay?"

Orin hid his face with both his hands and sank to this knees on the sand in front of Kairi. His clawed hand felt cool to the touch and the claws that touched his skin were sharp as razors. If Orin had actually put any pressure at all on his claws they would've broken the skin with no difficulty. Orin narrowed his yellow eyes as he looked over his clawed hand in disgust. In a moment of anger he punched the sand with it, sending a small amount of sand flying from his fist's impact area.

"Kairi?" Orin asked as he looked up to the young lady who stood in front of him.

"Yes Orin?" Kairi responded.

"Do you think I'm a monster?" He asked, lifting up his arm as if to remind her that he had it despite the fact that she could see it quite easily from her position.

Kairi smiled and shook her head. "No I don't think you're a monster. A monster wouldn't bother to ask that question. I think you're a nice person who has something wrong with him and we'll try to help you get better." Kairi then turned her head to look over at Riku, Sora, Donald, and Goofy. "Right guys?"

"Of course we will." Goofy said, answering for the group. "But where do we start?"

"I think we should go to Radiant garden." Sora said. "If he's wearing the emblem that Ansem used to brand the Heartless there might be something in Ansem's computer."

"Good idea Sora." Riku said, resisting the urge to tease Sora by saying something like; 'I can't believe you came up with one of those.'

"Our ship is just over there in the cove." Donald quacked. "We could go to Radiant garden."

"Thanks. I'm sorry for any inconvenience." Orin said meekly, even though he still felt a little down about his arm he really was grateful that these people were willing to go out of their way for him.

"Nah, it's okay Orin." Goofy said. "If we can help ya we will."

"Thanks Goofy." Orin said. He suddenly felt a sharp pain in his arm as a dark haze surrounded it. As this haze lifted everyone was surprised to see that his arm had returned to its original human state. Orin held his arm to his chest, squeezing his hand and wrist trying to reassure himself that they no longer looked like something that belonged on a Heartless.

Riku wisely decided to postpone the 'talk' he said he would have with Orin. He didn't seem like he could take it at the moment. He would talk to him when the time was right.

At that moment Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka ran up to the group. Seeing them up this early on a weekend was a rarity.

"Hey dudes, what's up?" Tidus asked.

"We're heading to Radiant garden for a little while." Riku said. "We'll be back in a while."

"Please tell our parents for us that we're going to be going out of town. Our friend needs us and we promised we'd help him." Kairi added.

Wakka sighed. "Well... okay. But ya owe me one. I'll be getting the fifth degree from each of your parents ya know..."

Riku chuckled quietly at the thought of his mother and father chewing Wakka out about all this. However the waiting hell storm Riku would face once he got home made even his iron nerves quake. Better to get this over with as soon as possible.

"Come on, let's get going." Donald quacked, he was getting a little impatient from all this standing around. "I'm sure we'd all like to get this over with as soon as possible."

The gang readily agreed. The faster this trip was over the better. Riku, Sora, Kairi, Donald, Goofy, and Orin all turned and headed to the Cove where the Gummi ship was parked.

"Bring us back something!" Selphie called to them as they rounded the corner of the Shack.

"Something cool!" Tidus added.

Wakka shook his head at Tidus. "C'mon... You two are coming with me."

Tidus asked, not pleased with the prospect of having to help Wakka deliver news like this to three sets of parents.

"Misery loves company." Wakka said as he headed towards the dock, followed by Selphie and a very terrified Tidus.

---

After boarding the Gummi ship and taking off for Radiant garden Orin looked out at the stars. Sora and Kairi were with Donald and Goofy on the bridge, He and Riku were in the interior of the ship with Riku. Personally Orin would've preferred hanging out with Kairi or Sora to the white haired boy. Riku got out of the seat he was sitting in and walked up behind him.

"Makes you feel real small doesn't it?" Riku asked.

Orin nodded. "Small and insignificant. Like the life and actions of one person don't really matter."

"I don't know about that." Riku said. "If that was true for everyone then what me and Sora went through meant nothing. And I know for a fact that that's not the case. What we went through was for everyone. If we hadn't defeated Xemnas and Xehanort we wouldn't be here talking right now."

Riku noticed that Orin's muscles tensed at the sound of Xehanort's name. Clearly Orin knew something about Xehanort. Riku would have to be subtle if he wanted to get info out of Orin or he'd risk destroying the trust Orin had built up for him.

"What were things like before Xehanort destroyed Radiant garden?" Riku asked as he turned to look at Orin in the eye.

Orin refused to return Riku's gaze, his eyes seemed to bore straight through him. "It was a very peaceful place. There were lush gardens and parks everywhere and Ansem the wise made sure the people were taken care of. It was a great place to grow up."

Riku smiled. "Sounds like it. What did your parents do for a living?"

Orin walked over and sat back in his chair. "My father was the one who cleaned Ansem's lab after he was done with them. He and Ansem were old friends and he trusted my father a great deal. He even allowed me to come with my father and help him clean the lab sometimes."

"So your father was a janitor?" Riku responded in a smug tone as he leaned against the wall.

Orin laughed. "Yeah I guess you could say that."

"What else do you remember?" Riku asked.

"I hate to admit this but there are gaps in my memory after that. I just remember waking up a few weeks ago and after that the Heartless started chasing me."

"You mentioned a dark rocky beach, how did you get there?"

Orin sighed and leaned his head back on the chair's headrest, this explanation was going to be a little long winded. "I remember after I woke up I fled Xehanort's lab and found this door. I wasn't sure what was the deal with it because it didn't seem to lead anywhere. But then suddenly it just opened without any provocation. On the other end was the beach. I went through but as soon as I did the door vanished and that's when the Heartless began to chase me."

'A door?' Riku thought as he crossed his arms. "Could it have been the door to darkness?"

"Have you ever been to that beach?" Orin said, jarring Riku from his thoughts.

Riku hesitated as memories of being locked behind the door after he was possessed by Ansem, Xehanort's Heartless and again when he and Sora destroyed Xemnas. But after a while the white haired youth answered. "Yeah, I have."

"It was a beautiful place despite the short time I had to admire it." Orin said, a small smile appeared on his face as he recalled the dark beach. "I always did like being outside on clear nights when the moon was full. Something about it soothes me." Orin shook his head and laughed to himself. "Kinda silly huh?"

"Not really." Riku said. "I think we all used to look up at the night sky at one time or another when we were young."

Orin nodded his head but something still troubled him. "Riku, what do you think of me? Do you think I'm human or a Heartless?"

Riku blinked and coughed as he collected his thoughts. "What do you think?"

Orin looked absently at the ceiling of the Gummi ship. "After what happened when the Heartless attacked us this morning I'm not sure anymore. I mean, I can hear Hearts, I have antennas, and I have this mark on my chest that refuses to be hidden... These are characteristics of a Heartless. But at the same time I've never heard of a Heartless that could talk or had a sense of self."

Riku closed his eyes. He knew of one Heartless that had both of those things. Ansem, the seeker of Darkness. So much about Orin didn't make sense, because he seemed like a mixture of Heartless and Human. Riku couldn't tell where one started and the other ended. Still there was one thing that did separate Orin for any Heartless Riku had seen. Provided it wasn't some sort of trick. "You forgot something Orin."

"I did?" Orin blinked, turning to look at Riku once again.

"No Heartless has ever asked questions like this." Riku said. "Nobodies would sometimes ask them, but Heartless would never bother."

"Thanks Riku." Orin said. "But you didn't answer my question."

Riku looked out the window. "Hey look, you can see Radiant garden out the window."

Orin was a little annoyed that Riku didn't answer him but pushed the feeling aside as he looked out to see his home world. He felt a pain in his heart as he laid eyes on the castle that was now decaying like a nightmare in morning sunlight. He remembered when that castle was a sight of beauty, to see it now and in this condition was quite a blow.

The first thought that came to Orin's mind was 'How long have I been asleep?'

Sora and Kairi both came back from the bridge at that moment. Both very excited to see the friends they had there once more.

"We'll be landing soon. Aren't you excited Orin? You'll be home again!" Kairi said, grinning ecstatically at the thought of her newest friend in a more cheerful mood. However Kairi's hopes were dashed when she saw the somber look on his face. She looked out the window and saw he was looking at the castle that was steadily growing larger outside. "You used to live there didn't you?"

"In the castle? No," Orin said flatly. "It's just that the castle didn't used to look like this."

"Don't worry. Leon and the others are working on restoring the town. I'm sure they'll fix the place up better than it used to be once they're done." Sora explained.

Orin nodded, his antennas wiggling at only half their normal speed, whether because it was because of his mood or because they were finally tired no one knew. "I hope so."

Orin and the others watched as they began their decent to Radiant garden, formerly known as Hallow bastion.

To be continued...


	6. Radiant Garden

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I DO own the OCs. If you'd like to use them in a fic, just tell me.

Am I Heartless?

Part 6

The Gummi ship gently touched down just outside the market place, as the group walked out they could see that things hadn't really changed all that much since they were here last. There were many more people however, each of them going on about their personal business. But before they would let Orin go out where people could see him they knew something had to be done about his appearance.

Riku took off his yellow jacket and handed it to Orin. "You want someone to see that mark on your chest?"

Orin shook his head and put the jacket on and zipped it up. Thankfully the Heartless mark did not appear like it had when he showed them back on the Destiny islands. However something remained to be seen to... "What about my antennas?"

Sora put his arms behind his head as he thought along with the others. "You think Donald would mind if you barrowed his hat?"

Donald nearly threw a fit at that idea and clamped his hands down on his hat as if they were actually going to try to steal it off his head. "No way! I don't care what you say my hat stays on my head!"

"And mine wouldn't cover either of them there antennas." Goofy said, examining his own hat before putting it back on.

"Not to mention I'd look pretty silly wearing it." Orin said, quickly adding; "But that's just me, it looks good on you Goofy."

Goofy chuckled and nodded, letting Orin know he understood what he meant. Goofy knew Orin was a good person despite his appearance, in some ways Orin reminded Goofy of the Beast.

However the group couldn't think of anything to do about Orin's antennas. Sora considered trying to snatch Donald's hat but decided against it once Donald noticed the way Sora was looking at him. The brain trust was interrupted by a familiar face.

"Sora, Donald, Goofy good to see you again!"

The gang looked up to see Yuffie standing on top of the nearby roof. In an instant she leapt down from the roof and landed in front of the group.

"Yuffie! Nice to see you again, how are Leon and the others?" Sora said, always glad to see a friendly face, and in his opinion Yuffie's endless supply of energy seemed to be contagious.

"Leon and the others are fine. Cloud's back from where ever it is he went when he and Sephiroth disappeared to. Cloud's been helping out with reconstruction, before you guys beat Organization XIII all he'd do is sit around and mope about Sephiroth." Yuffie looked over at the other members of the band that came with Sora. She knew Donald and Goofy nearly as well as she Sora, however she had only met Kairi once and she had never actually met Riku before. She could the weird looking guy in the rear of the group was trying his best to be inconspicuous.

Sora grinned. He was glad to hear that Cloud was alright. "Awesome! Let me introduce my friends Riku, Kairi, and my new friend Orin."

Yuffie smiled and walked up to Riku. In her opinion he looked kinda cute. "So this is the infamous Riku, nice to meet you at last."

Riku smirked. "My reputation precedes me."

"Nah, I just wanted to see the guy Sora was looking for the last time I saw him, nice to meet ya." Yuffie laughed as she turned to face Kairi. "Man Kairi you've grown since I saw you last. You look good!"

Kairi smiled and nodded. "Thanks Yuffie. You're looking good too."

"I always look good." Yuffie said, putting her hands behind her head and giving the entire group a wink.

Orin smiled, maybe Yuffie wasn't going to be like some of the people he's met. However before Orin could think any further he realized that Yuffie was standing nearly nose to nose with him.

"What's with the feelers on your head? You descended from a race of bugs or are they just for look?" Yuffie asked, flicking one of Orin's antennas with her finger.

Orin yelped and grasped the black wiggling antenna with both hands. "That hurt!" He spat angrily at the ninja.

Yuffie blinked and reached to touch Orin's other antenna but Orin jumped back.

"Oh come on it wasn't like I was going to tear it off or anything." Yuffie said, as if she had done nothing to warrant such behavior.

Orin grumbled but said nothing. This girl sure knew how to get on his nerves, what was her problem anyway?

"Well, look what the ninja dragged in. Looks like I found where you've been goofing off Yuffie."

The group turned to see Leon coming up the steps towards them. Nothing about him had changed since they had seen him last. He had his jacket slung over his back and he looked a little tired but then again what can you expect when you had to help rebuild a city?

"Sorry Leon..." Yuffie said, she was doing her best to sound sincere but she really HAD been enjoying her 'time off'.

Leon shook his head, Yuffie was a great asset in a fight but outside of battle she was a typical teenager. He turned to the offworlders and smirked. "So guys what's new?"

"Not a lot. Have you guys had any problems with the Heartless?" Sora said.

"We've had reports of them but they only attack when provoked. Strange behavior even for them, normally they just attack any living thing and try to steal their hearts." Leon said, "The security system and claymores take care of any Heartless that gets too close to the town. Is that the only reason all of you came by?"

((A/N: Claymores are what Cid called the orbs that help you out during fights in Hallow bastion/Radiant garden))

"No, we thought that Ansem's computer might have some information on him. You see his memory is like Swiss cheese." Riku said flatly.

Orin smiled weakly, he was glad that Riku was sticking up for him. For the time being anyway. But on a personal level Orin was beginning to feel uncomfortable, Riku's vest was really hot.

"You must be Riku. Sora's told me a lot about you." Leon looked the young man over and smirked. "I can see why Sora looked up to you."

Riku laughed and looked over at Sora, who was looking pretty embarrassed. Riku just shook his head and looked back at Leon. "Nice to know I have a reputation in this town."

"Hey let's get going," Kairi said. "You know while we're here Wakka is back home explaining why we're not at home right now."

"On the way there we should check up on Cid. He's been through just about everything in that computer." Leon said. "He could pull up any file in that computer you'd want in a second."

The gang nodded in agreement and headed towards Merlin's house, and as they went Sora, Donald, and Goofy got some thankful looks and kind words from the townsfolk for helping rid the worlds of the Heartless. Orin was silently grateful that Sora was drawing attention away from him and his antennas.

As they came to the door to the old wizard's house Yuffie and Leon stopped and turned to the group.

"Merlin's currently out visiting with Queen Minnie at Disney castle. So Cid's pretty happy having the place to himself." Yuffie said. Yuffie herself didn't mind Merlin, he was a little too stuffy for her tastes but then again most people his age are in her experience. "He'll be there a while. She's trying to come to the castle every so often to teach magic to young mages."

Leon nodded. "He's not expected back for a few days and we promised not to touch anything. So try not to break anything or we'll have an angry wizard when Merlin gets back."

And with that Leon opened the door. The house was still as cluttered as before but it looked like it had had a good cleaning since Sora had been there last. There was a small fire in Merlin's wood stove and Cid was sitting at his computer terminal as he always was.

"Riku, Kairi, Orin, welcome to the Radiant garden restoration committee headquarters." Yuffie said proudly.

Cid didn't even look back as they came in, he just stared at the screen and typed like the wind. "One sec kids, I'm havin' a hard time figurin' out this signal the computer system is pickin' up."

"Come on Cid, get away from that computer for a sec and be sociable for a change." Yuffie snorted in annoyance, she preferred it when Cid looked at her when he talked.

Cid grumbled and turned around, he didn't like leaving something like this unfinished. "Okay let's make this quick, what's this about?"

Sora stepped forward. "We'd like to look up some information for Orin here. He says he used to live around here a long time ago but would like to look up information on his parents and some other stuff."

"So yer friend with the weird headgear says he used to live here eh?" Cid said as he took his toothpick out of his mouth. "You know anyone here kid?"

"I remember some people, but it's all very vague." Orin said, "Like looking through a dirty window or muddy water. You can see things on the other side but you can't make out distinct shapes."

"Yeah, he asked us if Yuffie was a brunette that used to run a flower shop." Riku smirked, going to love whatever response he was going to get from that.

Aerith visibly flinched, she didn't dislike Yuffie but to think that someone mixed her and Yuffie up was a little unsettling. "Well, you explained to him that wasn't the case right?"

"Yeah, like I said it's hard to remember. Didn't you used to have a flower shop Aerith?" Orin asked.

Aerith put her hands together and nodded. "Yes I did. But that was long before the Heartless first attacked or Radiant garden was renamed Hallow bastion. Tell us, what is your full name Orin?"

Orin scratched his head as his antennas continued to twitch back and forth. He seemed to be having trouble remembering his own name. "Penwheel, Orin Penwheel."

Yuffie closed her eyes and began to rummage around in her memory. The name 'Penwheel' rang a bell but she didn't remember anyone her age named 'Orin'. Then again she hung out with a small crowd, it's possible she just never met him.

"Do you remember anyone else Orin?" Aerith asked, her voice as calm and gentle as ever.

Orin nodded. "Yeah. I remember the guy who did this to me. His name was Xehanort."

"Xehanort?" Everyone exclaimed, even after his Nobody and Heartless were gone he still managed to disrupt the peace of the worlds.

"I remember that's what the name on portrait I saw when I was escaping the lab. I just have this feeling that's who made me like this."

"He gave ya those antennas? Why? Was he tryin' to corner the market on customized headgear?" Cid laughed, if he hadn't taken the toothpick out of his mouth his laughter would've shot it across the room like a missile.

Orin looked over at Kairi and motioned her to come closer. Not knowing exactly what he wanted Kairi shrugged and walked over to him wherein Orin put his hand up next to her ear and began to whisper something so only she could hear. The others stained their ears to catch a hint of what he was telling her. But Orin wasn't long enough for anyone to get anything of importance. Kairi turned to face Orin and shook her head.

"I dunno Orin... I mean you know what Riku tried to do to you when... you know..." Kairi said, choosing her words carefully but only further rousing Leon and the other's suspicions.

Orin gritted his teeth and smiled, looking rather pathetic for a person their age. "I know but I got you guys to protect me in case things turn sour right? Besides this vest is hot. Seriously, if you were to put this thing on a pig in a few hours you'd have a pot roast."

Sora barely stifled a laugh in time to avoid the sharp glace Riku shot him.

Riku then looked over at Orin, giving the young man a reassuring smile. "It's okay Orin. It's for the best, they'll probably figure it out sooner or later."

Orin nodded and turned away from Leon, Aerith, Cid, and Yuffie as he unzipped Riku's vest and with one quick movement slipped it off and turned back to the Radiant garden restoration committee. The Heartless symbols on his back and chest clear for everyone to see.

In an instant a Gunblade and an oversized shuriken were drawn and pointed at Orin.

Yuffie felt like slapping herself. The yellow eyes, the antennas... did she really have to see the emblem to understand what he was? Gawd she felt so dense right now...

"Okay guys stand back and we'll take care of this Heartless." Leon said, readying his Gunblade for a quick precise strike.

Sora and Riku both summoned their Keyblades and crossed them, barring Leon's path and nearly scaring Orin to death and causing him to slink back against the wall.

"You guys better have a good explanation for defending this thing." Yuffie said crossly as she hefted her shuriken on her shoulder.

"To be honest we're not sure he is a Heartless. However at the time we can't say he isn't." Riku said, as he continued he looked at Orin. "But from how he's behaved since we've met I really don't think he's any real danger. Just don't get too close."

Orin smirked and tossed Riku his vest. "Thanks Riku for putting that in such a positive light."

"Okay..." Leon said tiredly as he took a chair and sat down with his arms crossed on the back of the chair. "Now start explaining."

To be continued...


	7. More than meets the eye

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I DO own the OCs. If you'd like to use them in a fic, just tell me.

Am I Heartless?

Part 7

Sora and Riku went on to explain at length how they came to know Orin. How Sora and Kairi met him, how Orin flipped out when Kairi touched him, how the Heartless attacked them, about the emblem that refuses to be hidden, what Orin had told Sora and the gang about his past, and in the end Leon asked the real hard question... Was Orin a Heartless?

"We can't give you a definite yes or no Leon." Sora said, "If Orin is a Heartless he's not like any Heartless we've ever seen."

Yuffie blinked. "Man this is strange... Hey Leon you think Orin's what the Heartless are turning the town upside down for?"

Leon just tapped his chin, very deep in thought. This was a lot to consider and Leon knew he had to proceed carefully. "Yuffie, close the blinds. We don't want anyone to see we have a Heartless inside Merlin's house otherwise we may have trouble."

Yuffie looked at Leon for a second but a glance from Leon's hard eyes told her she should do as she's told. As Yuffie closed the blinds around the room the room darkened slightly but thankfully the cloth curtains were not thick enough to cut out even half of the normal amount of light.

"This lab you escaped from," Leon said as he looked up at Orin. "Was it here in this town?"

"I think it is. But from the condition I've seen of the castle it may no longer exist." Orin said.

Leon shook his head. "I wouldn't advise going there anyway, there's no telling what calls that place home now. Besides the castle isn't a sturdy as it used to be. You guys might crash through the floors before you get past the front door."

The gang didn't like the thought of crashing through the castle's basements so the thought of searching the castle was tossed out the window.

"I could look through the old security files from Ansem's computer database. I'm sure he'd want a record of whatever it is he did in there." Cid turned and began to type on his keyboard again. "I'll also look up yer name, if you lived here you should be in the birth records. What's yer last name again kid?"

"Orin Penwheel." Orin said, quickly deciding that Cid could use the correct spelling of his name. This he reasoned by asking himself if he could spell Yuffie's last name. "O-R-I-N, P-E-N-W-H-E-E-L."

Cid nodded what the others could only guess was a thanks as he worked his computer wizardry. After a few minutes Cid stopped and stretched. "Well, I think I found a relative of yours kid."

The gang gathered around the screen to see a picture of an aging man with a kind look about him. He had short brown hair with a touch of silver, a thin beard that did nothing to hide the smile on his face, and bright blue eyes. Sora and a few of the others glanced over to see Orin was grinning like a child who was about to get a piece of candy.

"That's my father, Jerrad Penwheel." Orin said proudly.

"Yeah, it says here that he was the custodian for Ansem the wise." Sora said as he pointed out the part that said so by tapping on the screen. Only to have his hand slapped away by an irritated Cid.

"Hands off the screen kid. You'll smudge it with your fingers and this thing isn't the easiest thing to clean." Cid snapped.

Sora gave a cry of surprise as he waved his hand to rid it of the sharp sting Cid's powerful hand had delivered. "Ouch... Sor-ry..."

Cid scrolled down as he the rest of the group read along. But as they did their faces went from excited to sympathetic. The record read that Jerrad Penwheel was among the first to fall to the Heartless just before the Heartless took over the town.

Orin backed away from the group and sank to his knees. His shoddy memories were now all that he had to remind him of his father. And to ad insult to injury if he really was Heartless than he could end up just like the creatures that k- no... he wouldn't even think that word. Not in conjunction with the man who raised him. He was so immersed in his thoughts Orin didn't even feel the tears streaming from his yellow eyes.

'He's crying... Can Heartless cry?' Yuffie asked herself mentally as she walked over and patted Orin on the back. "Hey, take it easy. Things could be worse ya know."

Orin looked up at the ninja girl, his tear stained eyes glaring up at her for her insensitive words. "How could they be worse?" He asked harshly.

Yuffie turned her nose up at him. "You don't have to bite my head off, I'm just trying to make you feel better."

Riku walked over and whispered in Yuffie's ear. "And you're not doing a very good job."

"Who asked you?" Yuffie shot at Riku, sending him a very nasty look.

Donald and Goofy both chuckled at the festivities that were taking place. Both agreed that they should've brought popcorn.

Cid covertly motioned for Leon to come over. He apparently had something he wanted to say and didn't want the others to hear.

"What is it Cid?" Leon asked as he stood next to the expert engineer.

Cid looked over at Leon with a curious, almost confused look on his face. "Things just ain't adding up. It doesn't say anything about this Jerrad havin' a kid. It doesn't even say he was married or nuthin."

Leon narrowed his eyes and looked back at Orin. There was certainly more to this kid than what met the eye.

"Something wrong Leon?" Aerith asked once she noticed the look on his face.

Leon shook his head. "Dunno. Something about this just seems off..."

Aerith looked at Leon, then at what he was looking at. "Orin seems like a nice guy. Give him a chance Leon."

Leon looked at Aerith's cheerful face. What was it about her that made him take everything she said into consideration regardless of what he thought? Leon looked into her bright green eyes and slowly nodded his head. "Alright Aerith... I'll give him a chance..."

Yuffie meanwhile was still on the fence about him. He may look human but so did Ansem, Xehanort's Heartless and he nearly shouded all the worlds in darkness. However Orin acted nothing like anyone bad she had ever known. And there's the whole incident when they met, like how he snapped at her for touching those things on his head.

"You guys take some time off and go visit the shops, I'm sure you guys would like some time to look around." Leon said.

Sora and Kairi smiled and nodded. But they realized that Orin couldn't come with them to look on account of how he looked.

Orin walked over to the corner and slumped against the wall and slid down until he was sitting down with his knees up to his chin. "Don't worry I'll be right over here... staying out of the way..."

"See you guys later." Riku said as he opened the door and walked out.

"Riku?" Kairi said in a confused tone, but soon thought she'd loose him in the crowd if she didn't go after him. "Hey wait up!"

Sora looked over at Orin then raced after Riku and Kairi with Goofy and Donald in pursuit.

"What was his problem?" Cid muttered as he paused from looking through the computer database and turned to look back at the door.

"Does he need a reason?" Yuffie said she rolled her eyes. "Come on, let's get back to work."

"Like you do any work around here..." Cid muttered incoherently as he turned back to the computer terminal.

---

Riku wandered into the market place and sat down at a public bench. He looked around at the town and the people as they went about their business. Riku found it hard to believe that last time he was here all that populated this world was Heartless. Bad memories of how Xehanort's Heartless had used him returned and a mixture of anger both towards the parasite that took over his body and at himself for allowing it to influence him to hurt so many people.

"Hey Riku! Come here quick!" Kairi called over to her white haired friend, snapping him out of his little guilt trip.

Riku ran over and found that Kairi was standing in front of the accessory shop next to Sora who had a slightly annoyed look on his face.

"What's going on guys?" Riku asked.

"I wanted Sora to get me that cool earring up there but he doesn't have enough munny." Kairi said as she pointed out what was labeled as a 'Mage Earring'.

'Even after all the things we've been through she'll still act like a girl when around a shop that sells earrings, rings, bracelets, and things like that.'

Riku thought as he rolled his eyes and dug around in his pocket.

All together Sora and Riku had barely enough to buy one of the earrings for Kairi. What little they had left over they split evenly between them. As soon as Kairi got a hold of her new earring she put it on and gave both boys a thank you hug.

"Thanks guys, I owe you one." Kairi said as she turned to admire her reflection in the mirror that was on the shop. "But after everything that's happened I think it's just a drop in the bucket."

"Yeah, but don't worry about it Kairi." Sora said despite how his munny pouch felt a little too light for his liking. "We're friends and friends don't owe each other for things like that. I know you two would come looking for me if I was kidnapped."

"I dunno, I think I might let them keep you for a while Sora. Maybe I'll get a little peace and quiet then." Riku teased as he poked Sora in the chest.

Sora smirked and jabbed his friend likewise in the chest. "Oh and I looked for your butt twice now and that's the thanks I'd get?"

Both young men looked each other in the eye and burst out laughing. Kairi just smiled and shook her head. Is this how they were going to act now that they were back together?

This little moment was spoiled as a small black hand touched the back of Kairi's neck. Kairi let out a surprised yelp as she leapt away from the hand to see a small Shadow cocking its small head from side to side as it stared at Kairi while it hung from the ceiling buy a single clawed hand. Instantly the tiny Heatless was vanquished by a stroke of Riku's 'Way to the Dawn' keyblade before any of the townsfolk had noticed it. If they there was no doubt there would have been a riot.

"You okay Kairi?" Riku asked as he unsummoned his keyblade, sending it back to wherever it is keyblades go when they were not needed.

Kairi nodded as she caught up with herself and took a breath to relax herself. "I'm okay, it just touched the back of my neck that's all."

"Good. But I guess this proves that the Heartless really are back." Sora said, relieved that Kairi was alright. He had only noticed the Heartless a second before Riku had slain it, Riku was certainly more skilled than he had been last time they spared.

Goofy and Donald suddenly interrupted the three young people with a familiar yellow canine along with them.

"Pluto! Hi boy!" Sora cried ecstatically as he bent down to pet the King's dog.

"We found this in his collar." Donald said as he handed Sora a small rolled up piece of paper with a familiar marking on it.

"It's from the King." Sora unrolled the note and read it with haste. "It says we need to see the King, it doesn't say why it just says it's urgent..."

"We should take Orin with us. Maybe the King knows something about him." Kairi said with a fair amount of hope in her voice.

The gang readily agreed and headed back towards Merlin's house.

---

As the gang re-entered Merlin's house they were greeted once more by the restoration committee. Orin was still in the corner and still looking somewhat distraught.

"Something on your mind Sora?" Aerith asked as she bent over a little to look Sora to him on his level.

Sora stammered a little as he got a good look at Aeirth's cheerful face. She sure could look pretty when she wanted to. The keyblade's chosen wielder had to cough and turn away to regain his composure before he could begin. "We got a message from the King so we'll be heading there to talk to him."

Aerith stood back up but her smile remained on her face. She thought Sora was such a nice kid, it was hard to believe he saved her world twice now. "Are you leaving right now?"

"It says it's urgent so I guess we'll be going right now." Sora said. "Although it doesn't really say what's so important."

Orin got up and walked over the rest of the gang. He trusted Kairi and Sora more than these people. The whole time they had just kept glancing over at him like he was going to do something bad. Maybe he'd get a better reception where they were going next.

"Well, have a nice trip guys. Come back soon." Yuffie said and gave the group a bright smile.

Leon smirked. "I hope it's a nice trip Yuffie, because you're going with them."

Yuffie's jaw nearly hit the floor. "WHAT? Why?"

"You're obviously not happy doing all your hard back-breaking labor." Leon said with a vicious smile on his face. "So it's either go with them, or do all the work you've shirked since we began restoring the town."

Yuffie shuddered as she looked over at the post-it board which was covered in notes that were jobs for her to do. Yuffie took a breath and walked behind Riku and Sora and put her arms on both of their shoulders and pushed them towards the door. "Come on guys lets get going. No time like the present ya know! Tootles Leon!"

Leon chuckled but as soon as Yuffie had pushed both young men out the door it turned into a full blown case of laughter. Cid joined in as he remembered the look on Yuffie's face when she saw all the work she still had to do.

"Say Leon, does Yuffie really have all that to do?" Aerith asked as she pointed to the post-it board.

Leon shook his head. "Only about half of it, most of the work has been done already by other volunteers."

Aerith giggled and put her arms behind her back. "So you DO have a naughty side don't you Leon?"

Cid took a relaxing breath, eased back and put his feet up on one of Merlin's many stacks of books. "I'm just glad I'll get some peace and quiet now since the old coot AND the squirt are both gone now."

"Don't get too comfortable Cid." Leon said, his voice no longer had that smug sarcastic tone he got whenever he thought he was being funny. "I want you to check everything in that computer of Ansem's until you get something on that kid."

Cid had known Leon long enough to be able to tell he was now being completely serious and rather than risk having to argue Cid put his feet down and got to his feet. "Okay Leon I'll go. But you're coming with me to old Ansem's study just in case the Heartless decide to take an interest in us."

Leon nodded and followed as Cid led the way.

To be continued...


	8. Disney Castle

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I DO own the OCs. If you'd like to use them in a fic, just tell me.

Am I Heartless?

Part 8

The first thing Yuffie did as they disembarked from the Highwind outside of Disney castle was run over to a bush and vomit. She had groaned and complained the whole trip about how space sick she was and now she was showing just how much she meant it. Everyone else was just thrilled that she had held it in the whole way.

Out of pity Orin rubbed her back in attempt to help her nausea pass all the while making sure his hand stayed on the back of her vest and not touch her skin. Yuffie disliked the fact that Orin was touching her but she could feel her nausea vanishing slowly.

"Thanks..." Yuffie said as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She felt a little bad about they got off on the wrong foot and really did want to make up for it. Even though Orin looked so... strange.

They approached the castle gates and as if he had done it a thousand times (and he very well could have) Donald knocked on the gates and they opened inward. But as they walked in Orin was knocked back a good thirty feet by an unseen force.

"What happened?" Sora asked as he and Kairi rushed over to Orin's side.

Orin staggered to his to feet and rubbed his backside, his landing had not been soft. "I dunno I was just walking into the castle like you were and suddenly it felt like something hit me like a fist and sent me flying."

"You okay?" Riku asked, having no clue what had just happened.

"I'm fine just a little dazed." Orin said, shaking his head to try to throw off the impact he felt from... whatever it was that hit him. "You guys go on ahead. I'll stay out here and uh... make sure nothing gets inside."

"You think it may be because of the Cornerstone?" Goofy asked as he turned to Donald, who in turn just shrugged his answer.

"The Cornerstone?" Riku repeated.

"The Cornerstone of Light." Sora explained as he turned back to Riku and Kairi who had never heard of the artifact. "It's a giant crystal underneath the castle that kept all the Heartless and Nobodies from getting inside during our last adventure. It even kept Maleficent from getting in."

Riku was more than a little surprised, he didn't think there was anything that could keep the Heartless out of anyplace they didn't want to go much less fend off Maleficent.

"This doesn't necessarily mean that you're a Heartless Orin, the Cornerstone of Light keeps everyone with power from the Realm of Darkness out." Donald quacked giving the young man a friendly smile.

"You guys go on inside and meet the king. I'll stay out here and keep an eye on Orin." Yuffie said with a self satisfied smirk on her face as he looked over at Orin.

Orin snorted and turned away from the ninja. "I don't need a baby sitter Yuffie. I can take care of myself."

Yuffie sighed in mock defeat and slung her shuriken behind her. "Well if the Heartless who up in two or three dozen you may change your mind."

That shut Orin up real quick, he sighed in defeat and rolled his yellow eyes. "Fine... You win Yuffie."

Yuffie only wished she had a tape recorder because she never got tired of people saying that to her.

Sora nodded. "Okay, you two take care. This shouldn't take long."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah..." Orin muttered as he sat down on the grass in front of the castle.

Not wanting to waste anymore time Sora, Riku, and the rest of the gang entered Disney castle through the main gate leaving Orin alone with the ninja girl.

---

Once the gang was inside and the gates were closed behind them they were instantly greeted by two chipmunks in overalls.

"Sora! Donald! Goofy!" Chip grinned widely.

"Nice to see you all again!" Dale said as he hopped up and down, glad to see them all again so soon.

"Hiya guys, what's new?" Sora asked, bending down slightly to get a better look at Chip and Dale.

"Not that much. The King said he wants to see you in the throne room ASAP." Chip said.

The gang thanked the chipmunks and went on their way. Donald and Goofy lead the way to the throne room. On the way Riku and Kairi gave curious looks to the animated brooms that were either cleaning the floors or carrying water buckets. All they got out of Sora was an innocent shrug meaning he knew about as much as he did. They soon stopped in front of the large doors that lead to the throne room.

Kairi nearly fell backwards looking at the huge doors that stood in front of them. However when Donald opened a normal door sized section of the larger door she face vaulted.

"Same thing happened to me when I saw it Kairi." Sora reassured her as he helped her up.

Kairi grumbled a little but she quickly dusted herself off and hurried after her friends who had already entered the throne room.

---

Yuffie sat down on the grass next to Orin. "Hey... Uh... Orin?"

Orin blinked in curiosity at Yuffie nervous tone of voice, after their first meeting Orin had no idea what to expect from the ninja.

"I'm sorry we got off to such a bad start." Yuffie stood up straight and extended her hand. "Friends?"

Orin coughed. "Um... Little problem with that Yuffie..."

Yuffie flinched as she remembered Orin couldn't touch her without going crazy or so Sora had told her. "Oh yeah right... Sorry about that. We're still cool right?"

Orin took a second to think before he answered. Yuffie hadn't been exactly on his side since they met nor had she been the best company. His antennas felt sore just remembering how hard she had flicked them back at Radiant garden. On the other hand she had just proved that she could act like a normal person once in a while and not like the rude girl she often came off as. Heck if Riku could go from wanting to vanquish him to a friend (hopeful thinking anyway) then maybe he should give Yuffie a chance too. "We can be friends as long as you don't hit my antennas again. It's like being hit in the eye or some other sensitive area."

"I said I was sorry about that..." Yuffie muttered as she rolled her eyes. She really hadn't truthfully apologized for that but as far as she was concerned she had and that was the end of it.

"Huh? Did you say something Yuffie?" Orin asked.

Yuffie shook her head enthusiastically and waved her hands fronting innocence. "It was nothing."

Orin blinked his eyes and twitched his antennas. Yuffie sure was strange compared to the other girls he had met like Kairi or Aerith.

"So what kind of music do you have on those headphones?" Yuffie asked right out of the blue.

Orin took his red headphones off and handed them to Yuffie who instantly placed them on her head and turned it on. Immediately she wished she hadn't as blasting loud music blasted into her keen ninja ears causing her hair to stick out comically. Yuffie tore off the head phones and tossed them at Orin before checking to see if her ears were bleeding, which thankfully weren't.

"Yee gods how can you stand listening to music that loud?" Yuffie screamed as she shot Orin a very irritated look and rubbed her ears.

Orin managed to contain his laughter, knowing that if he didn't he's have a very angry ninja girl to contend with. Orin turned down the volume on his headphones and put them back around his neck. "Sorry Yuffie... You okay?"

Yuffie just grumbled and began to comb her hair with her fingers.

---

The group smiled upon seeing the King who was waiting for them farther down in the throne room. As they drew closer Donald, Goofy and Sora each gave a ridged salute which spurred subdued laughter from Riku and Kairi.

"Nice to see you too your majesty." Riku said with a small smirk adorning his face.

"The same to you Riku." King Mickey said as he hopped off his throne and looked up at the white haired boy.

"Now what's so important that you had to drag us all the way out here?" Sora said in mock annoyance as he crossed his arms and looked down at the king.

King Mickey coughed. "Well... I'd like Donald and Goofy to remain here this time."

"WHAT?" Donald, Goofy, and Sora cried. Of all the things the King had wanted out of them this was the least expected.

"Do you remember what happened last time you came to the castle Sora?" The King asked.

"Yeah, Pete went through that door that led to that weird black and white past where castle was supposed to be and Pete was just a river boat captain." Sora remembered that vividly because he personally never wanted to have to go back there. He liked being in color.

The King nodded. "Right, and Queen Minnie told me that when I left the castle was overrun with Heartless and Maleficent nearly took the place over. Since you have Riku and Kairi this time around you won't be alone."

"Yeah, and we have Orin and Yuffie with us outside." Sora said. "I'm sure we won't have much trouble. I mean it's just Maleficent we need to look out for. She may be powerful but she wasn't as bad as the Organization was."

The King blinked at the mention of Orin and Yuffie. "... Why are they outside?"

"That's kind of the mystery your majesty." Donald said.

"He says he's the son of Ansem the Wise's custodian, but he's these here antennas sticking out of his head." Goofy said mimicking Orin's antennas with his fingers.

"Yeah and he when he tried to come in the castle he got knocked back by some powerful force." Riku added.

"Oh? Tell me about this guy." The King said.

"Well..." Sora, Kairi, and Riku went on to explain everything that had happened after they had met Orin and felt nothing out. Even telling him about how he freaked out when Kairi touched him and when his arm transformed when they were fighting the Heartless.

"Now THAT'S interesting." The King crossed his arms in thought. "Hmm... Well, Ansem the wise had that computer in Twilight town, although it was mostly geared towards waking Sora and keeping Roxas hidden from the Organization. But you never know, there might be some information on your friend."

"Thanks your majesty." Sora said before turning to his friends. "I guess... this means good bye?"

Donald shook his head. "Nah. The King's just worried about Maleficent coming back and wants us to make sure that doesn't happen."

"That's right Donald." Goofy said. "We just have to help the King out for a while. But you have Riku and Orin to help you out this time I'm sure this won't be as bad as when we had to fight Ansem or the Organization. You just be sure to tell us all about your trip when you get back."

Sora wiped a tear from his eye and hugged his friends. "I will, you just be sure to tell me all about what went on here okay?"

Donald and Goofy agreed and hugged Sora back. Kairi and Riku waved goodbye to the King as ushered Sora towards the door as he tried to wave to Donald and Goofy.

"Don't worry you two, Sora's just trying to help someone out. Everything's going to turn out fine." The King said, sounding pretty sure of himself.

Donald and Goofy both nodded and went about to take their posts once again as Court magician and Captain of the knights.

---

Riku, Sora, and Kairi came out to see Yuffie and Orin sitting on the grass talking to each other. Silently they were just glad that Orin hadn't gotten hurt and Yuffie hadn't started something. Riku coughed and Orin and Yuffie jumped up and turned to face Riku, Kairi, and Sora.

"Hey guys!" Yuffie said, quickly wiping her surprised look off her face. "You shouldn't sneak up on people. It's not nice."

Orin just stood there looking rather absent, he obviously had a lot on his mind.

Kairi smiled. "Sorry you two, but where should we go to next? Back to Radiant garden?"

"Nah. We're going to head to Twilight town to check out the computer there. Maybe there's something there about you there Orin." Sora said, looking over to see Orin's attitude pick up a little. "Maybe Cid and Leon will have found some new information on you when we're done there."

Orin nodded. "Thanks Sora."

Yuffie groaned, this meant more traveling in that infernal Gummi ship.

To be continued...

A/N: No reviews make Jazzerman cry.


	9. Twilight town

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I DO own the OCs. If you'd like to use them in a fic, just tell me.

Am I Heartless?

Part 9

Once they landed the Highwind near the train station and helped Yuffie out, who was now laying on the floor of the station praying that her ship-sickness would pass soon.

"You guys wait here, I'll be back!" Sora said as he bolted down the street and out of sight. Leaving his friends baffled and confused by this sudden abandonment.

"Where's he going?" Yuffie asked, having never been to Twilight town before.

Kairi shrugged. "I don't know. But I'd guess he's going to go talk to the Hayner, Pence, and Olette."

"Who?" Yuffie asked, turning to give the island girl a curious look.

"They're a group of kids our age who live here in Twilight town." Kairi said. "I met them when the Organization tried to kidnap me before."

Orin nodded. "Can you tell me about the Organization?"

Riku stepped forward. He'd fill Orin in on this one. "Okay, but first do you know how Heartless are created?"

Orin opened his mouth to say he did however a split second before that he realized he didn't. "Not really Riku..."

Riku took a breath, this was going to take a while. "Heartless are created in a few ways. When a person gives in to their inner darkness they can be turned into a Heartless. These are generally more powerful then the other kinds of Heartless. Heartless can also be created when other Heartless steal people's hearts, and from what Ansem's notes told us there was a way to mass produce them some way. It's best that that last way is not known or else someone could repeat it."

"Go on." Orin said, "So are these Organization guys Heartless that were mass produced?"

"No. You see when a Heartless is created from a person with a strong sense of self a Nobody is created. A Nobody isn't like a Heartless, they can think and plan ahead and are physically more powerful then a Heartless but they have fewer numbers."

"So the Organization was full of Nobodies?" Orin guessed.

Riku nodded. "You're half right, they were all Nobodies, people with no hearts and no emotions, although they liked to act like they had both. They claimed that they wanted to create Kingdom Hearts so they could become whole. Thankfully their leader failed to fulfill that goal."

"Okay... But what's Kingdom Hearts?" Orin asked, he didn't mean to sound like he was just asking questions to bug Riku but he really didn't know all this stuff.

Riku groaned mentally, Sora owed him a pizza for leaving him to explain all this stuff. "I'm not sure really... Ansem said it's the Heart of all worlds, while at the same time it was like a door between the worlds of darkness and light... I can't give you a definite answer."

Orin thought about that for a little while. "You think that could've been the door that brought me to that gloomy beach after I woke up?"

Riku scratched his chin for a second. Kingdom Hearts had proven that it wasn't an ordinary door. It very well could've appeared and brought Orin to the Realm of darkness but why would it do that? There had to be more to this than what already known. "It could have been." Riku said in a defeated tone, letting Orin know that he had absolutely no idea.

Riku sat down on the steps of the train station entrance and sighed. This little adventure was getting way too strange. Normally he and Sora would've been seen ten times or more Heartless then they have and they haven't seen any Nobodies.

Yuffie sat down on the steps not far from Riku. She was glad someone had explained it to her without her having to ask a single question. She let out a relaxed breath and leaned back against the steps as if they were a couch. Although Yuffie wished she was sitting on something that comfortable.

Orin turned to look at Yuffie. "So Yuffie did... you ever meet my father? Jerrad Penwheel?" His yellow eyes showed a great deal hope that she'd says she did.

Unfortunately Yuffie shook her head. "I think I heard his name once or twice when I was younger but I don't remember ever meeting him. It was a long time ago."

"Anything at all?" Orin pleaded, silently praying that the ninja girl would know something. "Do you have any memory of me?"

Again Yuffie shook her head. "I'm sorry Orin. But what I told you back in Hallow bastion is all I know."

"Whoa now that's something you don't see everyday!" Pence blurted out as Sora returned with the other members of the Twilight town trio.

Orin gritted his teeth but he couldn't help but mutter; "And it's not everyday we see a small planet wearing a sweatband."

Pence cocked his head, thankfully for Orin he hadn't heard what Orin had said. "Huh?"

Orin sighed in relief and shook his head. "Nothing, just watch the remarks please."

Pence agreed and looked over at Sora. "So Sora did you ever find your friend?"

Sora smiled and nodded as he motioned to Riku. "Yeah, this is Riku, my best friend from Destiny islands."

Olette whistled. "He's cute."

Riku coughed in slight embarrassment at Olette's remark about him. "It's uh, nice to meet you all."

"So what brings you back here Sora?" Hayner asked, giving the Keyblade's chosen a skeptical look. "Are those things back in town?"

"No, have you seen any?" Sora asked.

Hayner looked at Olette and Pence, silently asking them if they had seen anything. But both Pence and Olette shook their heads in a negative answer.

"I guess we haven't had anything since we went into the mansion." Hayner said.

"Good." Kairi said with a sigh of relief. "We're here to check on the computer in the mansion for our friend Orin."

After retelling how they had met Orin one more time the group headed to the mansion. On the way the trio from Twilight town asked Sora, Riku, and Kairi mundane questions like how things were, about what they found when they went to The world that never was and if it was all over between them and the Organization.

As they opened the doors they found the mansion was the same as it had been last they had been there. Dusty, messy, and inhabited by no one, and thankfully 'no one' meant no Nobodies. After navigating the stairways they found the computer room was also like it was when they left.

Pence hopped into the chair in front of the computer and typed away. In a matter of seconds the screens throughout the small computer room flicked on and showed what seemed to be statistics on Sora during his time in that pod in the back room at the end of the hallway.

"Okay guys, what shall we look up?" Pence asked, "More stuff about the Organization?"

"No, we're here for Orin's sake. Can you look for something on him?" Sora asked politely.

"Sure. I'll just do a search..." Pence typed in Orin's name and hit enter. However nothing came up. "I'm not seeing anything guys."

Orin sighed. "All this way for nothing..."

"Don't give up so easily Orin. Pence, try searching for 'Penwheel'." Riku said. "Maybe there's something under Orin's last name."

Pence nodded and did as Riku suggested. This time a single file was found. "Hey I found something!"

That perked things up, everyone crowded around Pence to get a better look.

"It looks like a video file... Should I play it?" Pence asked, but when he looked back at the others and saw the death glares from Orin, Yuffie, and Kairi he wisely decided to take that as a yes.

Upon clicking on it all the screens in the room changed to show the image of Ansem the wise. He wasn't wearing the outfit he wore when he masqueraded as Diz but the lab coat of a scientist.

"Live journal entry 42, I am sad to report that my prized students have been practicing perverse experiments with hearts. Regardless that I told them expressly to abandon all research in the matter. I am also sad to report that my dear friend Jerrad Penwheel was attacked by these creatures my former assistant Xehanort named 'Heartless'. Jerrad was a good friend and I will miss him greatly." Ansem shook his head in memory of his lost friend and employee. "Another reason why I must put this to an end. I will make one last attempt to get my assistants to end this and give themselves over to judgment for what they have done for the sake of our former friendship. Hopefully they will stop and there will be no need for me to be forced to do something I may regret later. End journal entry."

With that the image of Ansem the wise disappeared from the screen. Pence began to type on the keyboard some more. However he quickly quit after a large red sign appeared on the screen.

"What's wrong Pence?" Kairi asked.

Pence typed on the keyboard for a few seconds before giving up. "All the files are locked. I must've tripped some sort of security protocol because it's asking for a password."

"Try 'Sea salt ice cream'." Sora said. "That's what the password worked last time."

Pence remembered that from the last time they used this computer and typed it in only to get a red screen that read 'Access denied'. "It's not working, and I think all the other files have just been deleted or hidden because I can't even find them anymore."

Orin punched the wall and cursed loudly, only to retract his hand a few seconds later to rub clenched fist with his other hand. "Sorry guys."

Yuffie patted Orin on the back and gave him a cheerful smile, but this optimistic look was only skin deep. Yuffie had no idea what to do in a situation like this, she knew nothing of computers. If Cid was here maybe he could figure this thing out in no time...

Riku shook his head, he felt Orin's response was understandable. "Are you sure you can't open the files?" He asked as he moved over to Pence.

Pence nodded slowly as he swiveled the chair back to face the gang. "Yeah, but the only way to get the file now would be to type in the password which we don't have."

Yuffie decided now was the right time to voice her thoughts. They needed someone technical and she knew who would love to take a look at this system. "You think we could bring Cid here?"

"That's a great idea Yuffie but you think he'd drop what he's doing and come here with us?" Kairi asked. Kairi knew Cid was a very busy man and might have to turn them down.

"I think he would. I mean if this computer was really used by Ansem, the real Ansem he'd drop everything to get a look at the data in it." Yuffie said as enthusiastically as always. "And I think we'd all like to see more of these journal entries."

Orin gave a small meek smile, he was grateful that these people were willing to help him find out the information he needed. But Orin's smile faded once he remembered he may not like what he finds.

"Then back to Hallow bastion it is." Riku said casually as he turned to the three residents of Twilight town. "We'll be back later you guys."

The gang said their good byes to Hayner, Pence, and Olette before they made their way back to the Gummi ship. With any luck Cid would come with them and give them a hand at cracking the code to the mansion's computer.

Yuffie groaned and prayed that this would all be over soon. She was starting to hope that the ship would break down so she could get a break from her space sickness. The other thing she hoped was that no one would offer her anything to eat until they got to Hallow bastion. Otherwise there was going to be a mess for the boys to clean up.

---

A large raven landed on the balcony of the highest tower of Radiant garden's castle and let out a loud raspy caw.

"Have you news for me my pet?" A sinister voice asked from the shadows of the tower.

The raven cawed and croaked a few more times before sitting silently on the balcony.

"Well what did he say?" A second burly voice asked.

"He says he saw a child of the Heartless." Out of the shadows of the tower walked the dreaded witch Maleficent in all the worlds few others had been defeated by the Keyblade wielder and survived to tell the tale. She and Pete had survived the fall of The world that never was and the army of Heartless therein and escaped to recover their strength in the dilapidated ruins of this castle.

"A what?" Pete asked, clueless as usual.

"I believe this news may be worth my attention. This may explain why the Heartless have become so active." The witch then turned her gaze to Pete. "Go and bring him to me."

"Why? What use could this kid be? What if he's some sort of uncontrollable monster?" Pete whined, showing just how cowardly he was even though he was bigger then Maleficent.

"Nothing is completely uncontrollable my dear Pete. And to answer your question, if the Heartless are indeed searching for this child then perhaps we can use him to control the Heartless."

Pete crossed his arms and thought on this. "Hmm... That sounds like a good plan Maleficent."

"Of course it is you fool. Now go." Maleficent spat as she opened a corridor of darkness, Pete's constant babbling was getting on her nerves. "Bring me the child if you can. I will be searching the worlds for... more fitting accommodations for one of my status."

With that the witch disappeared in a wreath of green and black flames.

"Hey wait!" Pete called to her, even though she was long gone by now. "What if the kid's dangerous...?"

Pete received no answer other than an annoyed croak from Maleficent's pet raven.

"Oh what do you know?" Pete shot back at the bird.

To be continued...

A/N: Yay reviews 3


	10. Terrible truths

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I DO own the OCs. If you'd like to use them in a fic, just tell me.

Am I Heartless?

Part 10

Another strangely uneventful trip faced the group as they headed back towards Radiant garden. Riku and Sora spent most of the trip reminiscing their about their adventures together while Yuffie and Orin sat near the center of the ship, far away from any windows. Orin had drawn the short straw and had the job of trying to comfort Yuffie in her space sickness. Orin guessed that maybe he should try to get her mind off being on the ship by getting her to mind on other things.

"So Yuffie, what made you become a ninja?" Orin asked suddenly.

Yuffie, who had been bent over on her seat in a desperate attempt to settle her queasy stomach looked up to look Orin in the eye. Those yellow eyes of his reminded her a little too much of a Heartless for her taste. But the gentle smile he was giving her put her mind to ease.

"It's kind of a family thing. My dad's a ninja, and so were my grand parents and their parents and so on." Yuffie sighed. "Sometimes I think he thought me more as a ninja then as a daughter."

"Did you think you should talk to him about that?" Orin asked, antennas twitching in a sign that she had his full and undivided attention but Yuffie didn't understand the expression and passed it off as nothing special.

"I've tried, but he's impossible." Yuffie muttered. "From what I've heard it's universal of children and parents ya know?"

Orin shook his head. "I... wouldn't know Yuffie."

"Oh I'm sorry Orin! I didn't mean it..." The ninja girl apologized, bowing slightly as he begged the yellow eyed boy's pardon.

"It's alright Yuffie." Orin said with no true honesty in his words. Yuffie's words had stung him more than he thought. Was his father truly a kind man? Other than a mental image of Jerrad Penwheel he knew very little.

The gang hurried to Merlin's house, upon opening the door they saw that inside were the usuals, Aerith, Cid, and Leon. As the group of teenagers came inside they could see that their expressions changed upon seeing Orin. Aerith's normally cheerful face became distant, Leon's brow narrowed a little, and Cid clamped his teeth down on his toothpick.

"Hey guys..." Leon said absently as he stared at the young man with the antennas. "Um Orin, you mind waiting outside for a second? Kinda sensitive material."

Orin looked pretty hurt but wordlessly complied with Leon's odd request by stepping outside and closing the door.

Sora more than a little confused, not unlike the others who had traveled with him. But before he could ask what was going on Yuffie stormed up to Leon looking pretty ticked.

"Okay Leon what was that all about?" Yuffie demanded, looking the older swordsman in the eye.

Leon looked into the younger girl's eyes, there was that usual fire she would get whenever she'd get angry at him. But it looked to Leon like there far more intensity than usual. Even more then the time Cid glued her shuriken to the wall after she broke his old laptop. Whatever the reason Leon kept his cool and acted like he didn't notice anything.

"What's going on is that we don't think he's human." Leon stated flatly.

"What was your first clue? The black antennas on his head or that he goes bonkers each time he touches someone." Yuffie snorted as she rolled her eyes. "But never-the-less he's a nice guy and wouldn't hurt a fly unless it was attacking him."

Leon shook his head, Yuffie's mouth could get on even his nerves sometimes, Leon absently chalked it up to getting older. "We found something in Ansem's computer we think you should see."

Kairi blinked. "What did you find Leon?"

Leon said nothing and looked over to Cid, silently signaling the airship engineer to show them what they had found. Cid's stern face and hard keystrokes were no comfort as he brought up the video file. The face of Ansem, the false Ansem, stared back at them wearing a white lab coat and not the costume he wore when Sora and Riku had fought him. His eyes didn't seem to have the same menacing glow either, he still looked as deluded as ever but he somehow looked more human.

"Ansem?" Sora exclaimed, he had hoped to never see that face again. "What's going on?"

"Just watch the video kid..." Cid said plainly.

---

"After many failed attempts I have finally discovered the correct process in which to restore a Heartless to it's original form prior to it's transformation into a Heartless." Ansem stepped to the side to allow the viewers to see a shadowy humanoid figure with glowing yellow eyes beating on the walls of the glass tube that contained him, all the while this creature was gnashing it's teeth and growling at Ansem. It wanted out and it wanted out NOW.

Ansem appeared to be almost amused at how energetic the Heartless had become, hopefully he would gain that same energy soon. "Unfortunately this is only half the equation. I have yet to discover how to keep a person from losing their identity during the transformation. Still this test subject could be useful. I have come to an interesting prospect: What makes a person who they are? The answer to that is their memory, their personal experiences. I intend to give this mindless creature some memories based on some of the people who live in my newly renamed town of Hallow bastion. I will then document his reactions and tweak his memory until he is oblivious to the knowledge of what he is. After I'm through he will be stored for future study."

Ansem smirked. "Once I complete my transformation and become one with the Darkness and am restored to my proper form I will continue my research of the Heart of all worlds. Restoring my 'Colleagues' their original forms would just be a waste of time and resources. Once my experiments on this mindless husk are finished and I have undergone my transformation I will attempt to gather more information on the Heart of all worlds and the 'Keyblade'. As the Master Control Program likes to say; end of line."

And with that the video ended.

---

The group didn't know what to say. They had just been visited (in a sense) by a very unwelcome ghost from their pasts which they hoped never to see again. For Riku seeing Ansem again was very upsetting although he didn't allow himself to show it any more then the others who just narrowed their eyes a little.

"That's the only one I was able to dig up. Even that there computer program Tron couldn't find any more that weren't in locked files." Cid said.

"Haven't you been trying to unlock them Cid?" Kairi asked plainly.

Cid took the toothpick out of his mouth and stretched. "Been tryin' to... I haven't had much luck."

"So what does all this prove?" Yuffie said, looking defiantly over at Leon. "What's this got to with Orin?"

"You didn't get a good look at the thing behind Ansem did you?" Leon said dryly before looking back at Cid. "Can you rewind the video to get a look at the Heartless behind Ansem?"

"Sure, just a sec Leon." Cid did just as Leon asked and brought the video picture to where they could get a look at the Heartless Ansem had experimented on.

The Heartless sure did look like a person. It had hair and was much more human in shape than any other Heartless they had seen but it was all black, had antennas, glowing yellow eyes, and claws.

"That doesn't prove anything." Sora said, "Besides, Orin hasn't done anything bad. "

Leon sighed, "Maybe so. Still we can't take the chance. If he was made by Ansem we can't say what he could do. I'm going to have to ask you don't bring him back here because we're going to turn the security system back on and confirm that he is a target."

That was certainly a conversation shaker, the younger members of the group where shocked to say the least. Leon was never one to sugar coat things.

"Come on Leon, what's this about?" Sora demanded, stepping up to the older man. He gave Leon a stern look. "Even if Orin's a Heartless I doubt he'd ever do anything bad."

"Sora I'm sure you and your friends trust him but we can't really trust he won't do anything." Leon said. "Remember how the Heartless turned this Radiant garden into an ugly ruined tower?"

"And do you remember that back in Transverse town you didn't think I was really worthy to use the Key blade?" Sora shot back.

Leon grumbled, he HAD thought that back when he had first met Sora and defeated him in combat. But that was before Sora had had practice using the Key blade. Now Leon was certain Sora could defeat him rather easily with it.

Leon gritted his teeth, he'd give Orin a break for Sora's sake. "I'll give Orin a chance. ONE chance. If he does something like attacking civilians Cid's turning the defense grid back on."

Riku nodded. "Okay then. That means we have to keep an eye on him. Kairi?"

Kairi nodded, understanding what Riku wanted and opened the door. "Orin, you can come in now."

No response came. Kairi walked outside to see Orin leaning up against the wall with a very shocked look on his face.

"What's wrong Orin?" Kairi asked, moving outside so she could get a better look at him. "You didn't... hear anything did you?"

"Oh you mean other than that little 'he may be a danger to the entire town' thing? Oh no..." Orin snapped, glaring daggers up at Kairi.

Kairi took a step back, Orin looked very... dangerous with that look on his face. But she quickly collected herself and looked away from Orin's angered eyes. "Well... I don't think that about you."

Orin blinked and slid down the wall of the house until he was sitting on the street, feeling pretty low for blowing up like that to one of the nicest people he had met. "I'm sorry Kairi. It's not right to yell at you. But it's just that I was spying on you from a small crack in the door. I saw and heard everything. I guess that makes me a monster..." Orin ended with a nervous laugh.

Kairi was about to put her hand on Orin's shoulder to comfort him a little but stopped herself. If she did that Orin might do something that might make Leon have to... "You aren't a monster Orin. I don't believe what Ansem said, he's a liar and he used a lot of people to get what he wanted."

"I... need to think. Please don't look for me." Orin said as he got to his feet and walked away from Kairi.

Kairi was confused but decided to honor Orin's wishes and went back inside.

"Where's Orin?" Sora asked, slightly confused that he hadn't come in with Kairi.

Kairi looked away from the group, she was a little ashamed of herself for not trying to talk Orin into running away. "He overheard everything, he said he was going to go off to think."

Leon wasted no time in looking over to Yuffie and Aerith. "Go after him. I want him watched."

"But Leon..." Aerith objected, not wanting want to interfere with Orin. She knew sometimes people need time to themselves.

"Aerith, please do this." Leon sighed in irritation. "I just want you to find him and keep an eye on him. You don't have to bother him."

"You want us to help Leon?" Riku asked.

"No, you guys can stay at our new Inn. It's not as nice as the one in Transverse town yet but it's comfortable." Leon said. "Just tell them you're members of the restoration committee and they won't charge you."

Sora nodded. He still had the member card he had gotten when he had come back to Hallow bastion at the beginning of his last adventure.

"I'll see you guys later. I promise I'll keep Orin out of trouble." Yuffie smiled and walked out of the door with Aerith to go find Tifa. They were gonna need a little help with this one.

---

Later...

"I hope those guys are enjoying the Inn." Yuffie muttered to herself as she looked up to the moon and shivered. It had been a while since she had been outside on these clear nights and it was getting cold. They had found Orin huddled on the edge of a building staring up at the moon. They were keeping their distance about three rooftops away and staying out of his line of sight just in case he was going to turn around.

"I'm sure they are." Tifa said, sitting not far from the other two young women. "This kinda reminds you of our adventure huh? Being outside... We'd just need the others and this would be just like back then."

"Say Tifa, how's Cloud? I haven't seen him around lately." Aerith asked.

Tifa walked over and sat down next to Aerith on the small blanket she had brought. "Ever since he got back he's been spending most of his time out by the Maw hunting Heartless. He only comes back to town real late at night."

"Has he been acting more like himself since he defeated Sephiroth?" Aerith asked.

"He's... improved a little." Tifa said none too convincingly. "He's still mopey ol' Cloud at heart."

Both Tifa and Aerith stopped their conversation when they noticed Yuffie was staring over at Orin.

"Something wrong Yuffie?" Aerith asked, jarring the ninja girl's train thought of the tracks.

"I'm going to go over there and talk to him." Yuffie just suddenly blurted out.

"What?" Tifa said. "But Leon said she weren't supposed to bother him."

"Well Leon has been to full of himself these past few weeks." Yuffie said flatly. "I'll go over and find out what's going on. You two can go back to the Inn if you want."

Without another word Yuffie leaped over to the next building and headed towards Orin.

Tifa looked over at Aerith and smirked. "Wanna stick around and see what happens?"

Aerith smiled and nodded, giving an over exaggerated look of concern. "We should stay and make sure nothing happens right?."

Tifa giggled and nodded.

---

Yuffie decided to approach carefully, leaving her shuriken laying on the rooftop as she walked up to Orin. "Orin?"

"I thought Kairi would tell you guys that I wanted to be left alone." Orin stated in a melancholy tone. He didn't even look back at Yuffie he just kept staring ahead, not really noticing that for the first time since he could remember his antennas hung unmoving over his eyes.

"Yeah but-" Yuffie began only to be cut off.

"Just leave me alone Yuffie." Orin said.

A blood vassal bulged Yuffie huffed, no one told Yuffie Kisaragi that. Not Leon, not Aerith, not even Cloud. "Is that anyway to talk to a friend?" Yuffie snapped as she defiantly sat down next to him on the roof.

Orin scooted a few feet away from the ninja girl, turning away from Yuffie in disgust.

Yuffie gritted her teeth and shook her fist. He was acting WAY too much like Cloud for her taste, always so mopey and down about everything.

"You wouldn't understand Yuffie." Orin said. "Please just go away..."

Oh that did it. Yuffie would've clocked him over the head with her fist but stopped when she realized that might knock him off the edge of the roof. Yuffie wasn't sure if he would survive a two story fall, Heartless or not.

Yuffie thought about this. She had to snap him out of this depression and a good pounding wouldn't could it this time. Besides hitting him might wake up Orin's darker side and she'd have to do something she really didn't want to do. Slay Orin.

'Am I sure I wanna do this this way? I mean he may thing I like him or something. No, I'll just explain to him afterwards that I just wanted to snap him out of his blues. That's right.' Yuffie grinned a little, but she then wondered why she was enjoying these thoughts as much as she was. 'This should cheer him up a little.'

Orin was shocked as Yuffie suddenly grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him into a hard kiss. Orin's mind which had been a confused vortex of questions a minute ago was now pointed at what was going on now but even with all that focus it was like he was completely frozen. He didn't know how to respond to this, but Yuffie solved his thinking problem for him by giving him a tight embrace. If Yuffie had kept her eyes to her Orin's eyes were glowing and his hands were twitching at his sides.

---

"Isn't that cute?" Aerith asked Tifa as they peeked over from another rooftop. Both had been there since Yuffie had found Orin sitting on the roof and were now watching with great interest in what was going on between them.

"Shhh Aerith. You don't want us to see us and spoil their moment do you?" Tifa said in a subdued tone.

Aerith clasped her hands on her mouth. "Oops. Sorry Tifa."

Tifa shook her head in a silent acceptance of her friend's apology and turned back to watching Orin and Yuffie, Aerith doing the same.

Both young women smiled, both thinking of someone they had in mind. Their day dreams were interrupted by a sharp but brief cry from Yuffie over on the other rooftop.

---

Orin had shoved his black clawed hand into Yuffie's chest without even drawing a drop of blood.

Yuffie looked down in disbelief at Orin's arm, she could feel it inside her and she could also feel a biting cold flowing from Orin's arm and slowly spreading outwards to the rest of her body. Yuffie could feel what she felt was his frigid claws around her heart. Was he going to turn her into a Heartless? No... Please if there's any gods anywhere please don't let him do this.

Whatever force or entity that guides the universe must've been looking after Yuffie that moment as Tifa had grabbed Aerith's Guard stick and flung it. It twirled across the roof and struck Orin in the side of the head with enough force to knock him to the ground. Thankfully his hand was empty as he connected with the ground, otherwise there'd be a new Heartless to deal with.

Orin was about to get up when Tifa's hard boot gave him a sharp blow to the mid section. Knocking him all the way to the other side of the roof.

"Get back you... you..." Monster, demon, fiend? None of these words seemed to fit for what Tifa had in mind. Not for what Orin had tried to do. "Aerith, is Yuffie okay?"

"She's in shock but I think she's okay." Aerith said, as she began to charge up her magical powers for a Cure spell to heal any injuries she might have internally.

Orin meanwhile had changed back to this normal form and tears were streaming down his cheeks. He had nearly done what he was most terrified of. In his mind there was no question now, he was a Heartless. A monster that likes to take people's hearts and spread corruption. He wouldn't be able to stay with the people he wanted to call his friends. He'd go away, far away from anyone. He'd rather live alone for the rest of his existence than hurt anyone. He only prayed that Yuffie would be okay. He didn't care if she hated him now, he deserved to be hated for what he tried to do.

Tifa got into her fighting stance as she watched Orin get to his feet. She did notice that his eyes looked a little red and his face was a little puffy like he had been crying. Tifa didn't know if he was really capable of crying or such feelings, he might be like the Nobodies and only acting like he has emotions. Never the less she decided to heed the old adage 'better safe then sorry'.

"Please tell Yuffie I'm sorry... I won't darken your nice city ever again." Orin sounded like he was about to burst into tears but before he leapt down to the streets and began to run out towards the outskirts of Radiant garden.

Aerith looked up at her old friend with an uncertain expression on her face. "Tifa?"

"We'll tell the others what happened. We need to take Yuffie back to rest." Tifa said. "The kid's not coming back anytime soon."

Aerith nodded and picked Yuffie up with some difficulty, she wasn't as physically toned as Tifa was and not used to carrying a seventeen year old ninja girl. Absently Aerith made a remark about Yuffie needing to loose some weight and would've fallen over but Tifa helped her back down to the streets.

As they carried Yuffie back towards Merlin's house Tifa thought to herself. Orin had attacked Yuffie viciously after what she thought was a romantic gesture but once they had gotten him away from her he seemed to return to normal. More than that he seemed sorry that he attacked Yuffie. Things didn't make much sense... But then she had seen stranger things.

To be continued...

A/N:I don't know how consistant this will look compared to my other chapters, I had to upload this as Notepad because wasn't accepting MS word documents.

Also to Phantom64; A humanoid Darkside eh? The prospect sounds nice but it doesn't look right when I picture it. It comes out looking something like the reggae singer Bob Marley with all his dreadlocks. But the idea is interesting. I may keep him in mind but I'd like to know what you have in mind for his appearance. If you had any.

And on that note... -Collapse-


	11. Running towards danger

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I DO own the OCs. If you'd like to use them in a fic, just tell me.

Am I Heartless?

Part 11

Sora and Riku were both awaked by both the sound of the door to their room opening and the light that came in from the hallway lights. But before they could ask what was going on they saw Kairi, who was looking very awake and worried about something.

"You guys awake?" Kairi asked

"Well now we are..." Riku muttered, he was never one for being woken up in the middle of the night. But then again who is? "What's wrong Kairi?"

Kairi walked into the room and closed the door behind her. She didn't want anybody listening in. "Aerith and Tifa brought in Yuffie and set her down on the other bed in my room. She was shaking and she had this look in her eyes like she was scared to death of something..."

Riku sat up in his bed, unsure what to make of this sudden news. "Did either of them say what happened?"

"No. They just laid her down and left quietly. I think they didn't know I wasn't asleep." Kairi said in a worried tone. "After they left I got up and shook Yuffie to see if she could talk but she just curled up in a ball on her bed and kept shaking."

"Was she hurt?" Sora asked, now sitting on the edge of his bed. Glad that he had decided to sleep with his pants on due to the chilly room otherwise Kairi would've belted him for being a pervert.

Kairi shook her head. "There wasn't even a scratch on her. I'm kinda worried you guys."

"You think we should go out and find out what's going on?" Riku asked, looking at both Sora and Kairi.

"Yeah." Kairi said. "You two go on and find out what's going on. I'll stay here and keep an eye on Yuffie."

Sora and Riku nodded and got up, getting dressed as quickly as possible and silently wishing they had thicker clothes. When you live on a tropical island you don't often have sweaters in your wardrobe. But they put aside the cold they felt and headed outside.

Kairi walked back to her room and sat down next to Yuffie who was still shaking like a leaf in a storm. Kairi sighed and ran her fingers through the older girl's short hair. Kairi prayed that this had nothing to do with Orin.

---

Orin slowly transversed the Great Maw, which was little more than the bottom of a wide crystal chasm devoid of any living thing. Orin sat down in the center and looked around. This place was eerily quiet and it was getting cold, quietly he cursed that the Heartless had torched his vest. He could've used the extra warm clothing. Still, it was a small price to pay for being far enough from the town. He couldn't hurt anyone if there was no one around. He remembered the agonized expression on Yuffie's face when he had come to his senses and knew without a doubt it would haunt his dreams for many nights to come. Yuffie was just trying to make him feel better but the reason why she kissed him still escaped him. Had she done it because she liked him or because she just forgot about what he told her about coming into skin contact with people? Orin shook his head, there was no way she would like him now even if she had liked him before. What he did was horrible and unforgivable. If living here in this wasteland was to be his punishment for hurting a former friend then he welcomed it.

Orin was jerked out of his thoughts by a clanking sound behind him. Instantly the young man whipped around to see a group of Soldier Heartless approaching him with their jerky movements. Orin wasn't about to lay down and die for these things, he knew this was one of the few times when could let himself go and not have to worry about hurting someone. As they approached him he could feel his right arm tense up and grow icy cold as it changed once again into the black clawed arm of a Shadow.

The Heartless's armor was no defense as Orin lunged at them, eyes glowing with a fury one can only obtain from bottling up a great deal of emotional pain and repressed anger. Orin's inhuman growls and sounds of his claws cutting through the Heartless echoed throughout the chasm making it sound like a massacre was taking place.

The small platoon of Heartless Soldiers were doing their best to avoid Orin's swift attacks and counter with their own claws but they just weren't fast enough. Orin grinned evilly, this was just what he needed.

---

"Well well... So while Pete is currently out searching the other worlds the little whelps who defeated me once before practically deliver the child of the Heartless on my doorstep. I should thank them for doing this." Maleficent chuckled, not at all surprised that Pete had once more been utterly useless in her orders. Seeing the child destroying her Heartless sentries down in the canyon from her tower was more than enough to brighten her mood.

---

Riku and Sora opened the door to Merlin's house and were both instantly thankful for two things: Leon was in there so they didn't have to search around in the cold night anymore and that the house was heated.

"Sora, Riku, What are you two doing out of bed?" Aerith asked, walking up to the young men who were meanwhile busy rubbing their arms to help warm their wrists.

Leon and Cid turned to look at the two young Keybladers, each had a slight smirk on their faces. They remembered their first night back home in Hallow bastion very well as well as the sharp winds that get produced at this time of the night. It's like they go right through you.

After Riku and Sora had regained the feeling in their extremities Sora finally replied; "Kairi told us that you guys brought Yuffie into her room and that she was freaking out."

Riku groaned at his friend's lack of subtlety. "We'd like to know what's going on."

Leon turned back to Cid's computer. "You two should go back to sleep. We've got things under control."

"Tifa's gone to find Cloud outside the town." Aerith said, both young men could see a little bit of remorse in her eyes but couldn't tell if it was meant for Orin or Yuffie. "Cloud should be able to find him, he knows the outside area very well."

"Did Orin say anything before he took off?" Riku asked.

"He told me to tell Yuffie 'I'm sorry' and that he that he wouldn't ever come to Radiant garden again." Aerith said. "I think he was really sorry about what happened, but he was too upset to reason with before he ran off."

"Well we got to out there and find him!" Sora exclaimed, eager to get back out there and look for Orin. "What if Cloud finds him before Tifa explains things and he thinks he's a Heartless?"

"He IS a Heartless Sora." Leon stated without looking back to face the Keyblade's chosen. "You heard what Ansem said in the video."

"Do you think Xehanort would ever tell the truth?" Sora retorted. "I mean this could all be some kind of mind game from beyond the grave he planned out if he lost."

"Maybe but creating a creature like Orin does fit in with what Xehanort would do." Leon responded, turning to look Sora in the eye. Telling Sora that he that he was very serious about this indeed.

"Come on Sora." Riku said as he tugged on his friend's arm. "If we're going to do anything it's clear we're going to be the ones that will do it." Riku shot a look over his shoulder at Leon before he opened the door. "We're obviously not going to get any help."

Sora looked at Leon for a second before following Riku outside.

Once the Keyblade wielders had disappeared outside Aerith turned to look at Leon with an intensely disappointed look on her face. Cid caught a glimpse of it and wisely decided to focus his attention on his computer and try to act like he wasn't there.

Aerith crossed her arms and tapped her foot. "Aren't you being a little harsh Leon?"

"I'm just trying to make sure that Orin doesn't accidentally hurt anyone else." Leon said, letting out a tired sigh. He hated having to argue with the flower girl. "What if he had attacked you?"

Aerith couldn't think of a response to that. After a short pause she said; "I just hope you made the right decision Leon..."

Leon turned away from her, thinking exactly the same thing.

Cid meanwhile just rolled his eyes. 'And thus ends another spat from the newlyweds...' He thought. 'I swear they act like they've been married for years.'

---

Orin fell to his knees once the last of the Soldiers had faded back into the darkness they had come from. Orin felt a vague sense of accomplishment, knowing that he had just taken out some of the Heartless, lessening their grip on this world. He also felt a little lighter after letting out all those negative emotions rather than carrying them around. This feeling only lasted for a short time, once Orin's adrenaline wore off his mood once again fell into darkness. He longed to go back and beg forgiveness from his friends but knew he shouldn't. He knew Leon might do something to ensure that he'd never hurt anyone in Radiant garden ever again. Orin couldn't blame Leon, he was just looking after his town the best he could. Orin would probably do the same thing in his place.

Orin continued his trek through the canyon until he reached a dead end, if he had more knowledge of the area outside the town he would have known this steep cliff that looked outward to more barren crystal flats and a ruined castle that stood out like a festered scab amid the landscape baring the mark of the Heartless. This castle sparked a memory or two but they failed to come to light. Leaving him feel a little bit empty inside.

Orin walked over to the edge of the cliff and sat down, letting his feet dangle over the edge and laid back on the hard ground. Orin stared up at the night sky, the stars seemed a little clearer out here than back in town. Maybe it was because there were no street lights to obscure them. He didn't really know for certain. The cold winds that had been blowing began to catch up with Orin as he crossed his arms and walked over to a small out cropping in the wall that would shield him from the winds.

Orin sat down and brought his knees up to his chest in an attempt to conserve heat. Orin sighed and looked around at his surroundings one more time to make sure no one was around, Heartless or otherwise and closed his eyes to get some rest.

"Well this is a pleasant sight. It is very rare indeed that I see anyone near my castle." A voice said.

Orin's eyes shot open to see a tall woman standing in front of him. She was wearing a long flowing black robe that trailed behind her and had black horns on her head. Whether she was wearing these or they were actually growing out of her head he wasn't sure. In her hand was a black metal staff with a green gem embedded in the top of the device. Her face was an olive green and her eyes were bright yellow with vertical slits like that of a snake. The smirk she was giving him was enough to make Orin's skin crawl.

"Who are you?" Orin asked harshly, jumping to his feet and bringing out his black claws. Although he was surprised how easily they had appeared this time he instead focused on Maleficent. No telling what this weird lady would try do to him.

"Like you, a denizen of darkness." The witch said in a soothing tone, all the while walking around Orin with her staff in hand giving Orin a look that reminded him of a viper circling a wounded mouse. "Why are you here child of the Heartless?"

"I am not a child." Orin snapped. This woman was different than the ones he knew back in town, different in a bad kind of way. "And if I am a Heartless what would you know?"

"My dear it's all over your face. You've been ostracized by the humans in Radiant garden because you are different. Because they fear you." Maleficent said, stopping her circling to look down at the smaller Orin. "They fear all creatures of Darkness."

"Huh?" Orin was confused, what was she getting at?

"Denizens of light and denizens of darkness can never live in harmony." Maleficent explained looking very sure of herself. "There is far too much distrust between them."

"You don't look like the trustworthy type yourself miss." Orin said crossing his arms and shooting the witch a very skeptical look.

"You may refer to me as Maleficent." The witch said, clicking her staff on the crystalline ground. "I am a seeker of Darkness and hidden and forbidden secrets."

"Secrets huh? You wouldn't know anything about some of Xehanort's experiments would you?" Orin asked.

"Perhaps. I know he left behind many notes about the Heartless in his personal Journal." Maleficent said coyly as she produced a beaten old leather bound book via her black magic, knowing full well this kind of opportunity would be irresistible to Orin. "Would you be interested in this?"

Orin instantly found himself reaching for the book. He would've gotten a hold of it if Maleficent had not have lifted it out of his reach.

Orin could only scoff at her. She was offering him something that could explain everything about him and yet she was playing these games with him. "Okay what do you want for it?"

"Not much my dear, you just have to come with me and help me with something." Maleficent said, still using the soft tone she reserved for tempting and talking down to people she was clearly superior to.

"And you aren't planning on destroying me?" Orin snorted.

"My dear boy I wouldn't think of it." Maleficent said, looking down at the youth with a satisfied smirk. "You're far too... unique to me to destroy."

Orin sighed in annoyance, why didn't she just tell him what she wanted from him in exchange for the book? "What do you want for it?"

"Just for you to come with me, I require your help in a small venture of mine." Maleficent said. "Promise you will help me and you will have this book."

Orin thought about it for a second. What did he have to lose? He had just practically exiled himself from what he had thought of as his home town and he was sure that by next morning the townspeople would know about him and want to make sure he didn't come back and have the security system see him as a target. Sora and Kairi might still trust him but Riku... Orin didn't know. He may do anything to him next time they met.

"Okay... I'll come with you..." Orin grumbled, not liking this deal one bit.

"Excellent." Maleficent said, walking behind Orin and placing a hand on his shoulder. "Stand still."

Orin was shocked when green and black flames suddenly appeared and enveloped them. In no time both of them were no longer at the Great Maw.

A man with spiky blond hair stood on the top of the wall of crystal above where Maleficent and Orin had conversed. Obviously neither of them had seen him take off back towards town on a midnight blue motorcycle.

To be continued...

A/N: Okay okay I know Cloud didn't have his motorcycle in Kingdom Hearts but I thought it'd be fun to include. Yes I own advent children and I do enjoy it very much as I loved FF7 ever since I got it way back in 97 (I belive). I don't care what you say, 7 is the best RPG game ever made despite what people say about it being 'blocky' by today's standards.


	12. Gone

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I DO own the OCs. If you'd like to use them in a fic, just tell me.

Am I Heartless?

Part 12

Sora and Riku met sparse resistance from the Heartless. Only upon summoning their Keyblades did the creatures attack. Thankfully these Heartless were nothing new to them nor were they very powerful. Mostly they were just Shadows, Soldiers, and Neo shadows, The Neo shadows were much like their lesser cousins, but walked more up right then the shadows who stayed close to the ground. They had no antennas on their forehead but they had two long trailing zigzag protrusions coming out of the back of their head reminiscent of an old style jester's cap. They were a little stronger than the Shadows but didn't use their melt-into-the-floor trick nearly as much as their lesser counterparts.

Riku and Sora had barely reached the ends of the restoration site past the town when they saw a motorcycle coming towards them from the direction they were heading.

The Heartless scattered and disappeared once Cloud had pulled up to the two teenagers, they knew Cloud very well and had grown to fear him almost as much as the Keyblades themselves.

"Cloud!" Sora exclaimed, happy to see the spiky haired back safe and sound since his disappearing act with Sephiroth. "How are you?"

"We saw your friend out at the Deep depths." Cloud said, brushing off Sora's question and earning a jab in the side from a certain long haired woman who was sitting behind him on his motorcycle.

Cloud looked back at Tifa who waved a finger at him. "Be nice Cloud."

"I've been... okay." The spiky haired man said reluctantly. Sometimes it was hard to tell who was tougher; Cloud Strife or Tifa Lockheart.

"You saw him?" Riku stated, raising an eyebrow at what Cloud has previously said before being abused by Tifa. "What happened?"

"No but Cloud did." Tifa said. "He says Orin disappeared with Maleficent after she offered him... what was it again Cloud?"

"Xehanort's Journal." Cloud stated flatly. "The old witch didn't say what she wanted the kid to do. I think she knew I was listening."

"Xehanort's Journal?" Riku raised an eyebrow. "Now that would be a trip to read. He'd have more information on the Heartless then anyone."

"Yes, among other things." Sora said. "I don't think Orin will like what he finds."

"The truth isn't always pretty." Riku said, speaking from his experience from their first adventure.

Sora quickly caught what Riku was thinking about and gave his white-haired friend a pat on the back and a confident smile. "I'm sure things will turn out okay. After all they did for you didn't it?"

Riku smiled and shook his head. Sora always had to be so optimistic... "Yeah, thankfully. What about Kairi?"

"I'm sure Leon and the others won't mind making sure she's safe." Sora said.

Riku raised an eye brow at that. "They may be okay with taking care of her but do you think Kairi will want to stay here? She's not exactly defenseless anymore."

"Yeah, but it's just I don't want her to get hurt." Sora said. "We'll ask her to stay but if she wants to continue with us to take on Maleficent we'll take her with us."

Riku smirked, in the past year Sora has learned something about girls. If he had just taken off and left Kairi here in town without telling her he would never have heard the end of it. Or if worse came to worse she'd punch him and not talk to him for a long time.

---

"Yuffie? Are you okay?" Kairi asked.

"I've felt better." Yuffie said, who was now well enough to sit on the edge of her bed. "That was downright scary. I thought I was going to be a Heartless for sure."

Become a Heartless? Now Kairi was really worried. "What happened?"

"Well Orin was really down after what we said about him so I thought if I gave him a kiss he might perk up." Yuffie drew her knees up a little tighter at the memory of what happened next. "Next thing I know his hand it all black and it's lodged in my chest trying to get at my heart."

Kairi gave the ninja girl a comforting hug, she felt bad about what had happened to her but she kinda asked for it. Orin had warned her a few times not to touch him because it makes him go crazy. But regardless it confirmed what she feared: her new friend was a Heartless. A Heartless that could be nice and have friends yeah but could never have physical contact with anyone. But why did that happen? Why did Orin go berserk each time he felt a heartbeat? Was it just because the Heartless part of him craves hearts or is it something else?

"Orin can't touch anyone Yuffie. Didn't you think about that before you did that?" Kairi asked.

Yuffie gave Kairi a look of painful realization. Yeah, she had forgotten about that little tidbit of information but she wouldn't tell Kairi that. "I know... It's just that he uh... looked so pathetic ya know?"

Kairi sighed and shook her head. "You should've been more attentive then. Otherwise we'd have another Heartless and another Nobody creeping around here."

'That's really comforting Kairi...' Yuffie thought, 'I really want to think of myself as being like those creepy Organization XIII guys...'

"You're sure you're okay?" Kairi asked as she tilted her head, concerned for the ninja girl's health.

"I'm fine. I'm just a little shook up." Yuffie said as she stood up. "I've got to go. I'm sure Leon and Aerith are worried."

"Be careful Yuffie. Don't overexert yourself." Kairi advised.

"Yes mother..." Yuffie mouthed as she left Kairi alone in the room.

Kairi flopped back on her bed. Things were sure spinning out of control, Orin turned out to really be a Heartless and he attacked Yuffie. Leon would ring his neck if he ever set foot back in town. Kairi sighed and closed her eyes. How did she, Sora, and Riku have to get involved in these things? Were they going to be fighting the Heartless when they're old and gray? She seriously hoped not.

Kairi was shaken from her thoughts by a soft knock at the door.

"Kairi?"

Kairi instantly knew the voice on the other side of the door and got up to open it. "Yes Sora?"

"We're going to go look for Maleficent." Sora said, a little concern showing in his tone of voice. "We just want to know what you want to do. Stay here or go with us."

Kairi shook her head. "I'm going with you. I want to be of some use this time."

"Okay." Sora acknowledged. But one thing still bothered him, he had no idea what to do now. "Well what now? I mean if Orin isn't here, where would he be?"

"Wherever Maleficent is I guess." Riku said, then added mentally; 'Typical nest head... he knows what to do but has no idea how to do it...'

"And whatever the witch wants with him is no doubt going to be bad new for us." Sora stated, remembering just how much trouble Maleficent had caused when she worked with Xehanort and again when she was working against them AND the Organization.

Riku nodded. "Right. Us and everyone else that isn't on her side."

"Riku, do you know where she's camped out?" Sora asked. He hoped he did or else it meant a whole lot of searching.

Riku gritted his teeth. The thought of the old witch brought back some bad memories from when she had convinced him to betray and attack Sora, Donald, and Goofy. He would like nothing more than to see that this was the final time they would run into her. But he shook his head. He had no idea where Maleficent was held up.

Sora hung his head. "So we have to start at square one."

"Well, I guess this means we'll have to go out and look." Kairi said, hoping to cheer her friends up. "How many times have we gotten to travel together?"

Riku and Sora smirked. It was true, they had never actually traveled together as a group in any of their adventures.

"Hey guys," Yuffie said, appearing out of nowhere in classic ninja style via a smoke bomb. Almost instantly after she appeared Yuffie dropped down to one knee. She was clearly exhausted, she was sweating, breathing hard, and covered in scratches.

"Yuffie are you okay?" Kairi cried as she ran over to Yuffie.

After taking a second to catch her breath she continued. "Remember all the Heartless that were just harmlessly looking around and not hurting anyone?"

"Yeah... What's wrong?" Riku said slowly, not understanding what Yuffie was getting at.

"They're going nuts! That's what's going on!" Yuffie responded, tapping her foot impatiently. She wanted to be out there helping defend the town. The town's defenses could only do so much on their own.

"Hold on Yuffie, what do you mean 'going nuts'?" Kairi asked.

"They're trashing everything from barrels to buildings, looking for whatever it is they've been looking for. That's what!" Yuffie wasted no more time and ran off with her shuriken in hand.

The three young teens from the Destiny Islands looked at each other and followed Yuffie outside.

---

"The Heartless in town are going bonkers Maleficent!" Pete whined, looking utterly pathetic at the old witch, hoping that she could sooth his nerves. "What if the ones we have start acting the same way?"

"Pete cease your sniveling." Maleficent thundered, turning to look down at her servant with a hard glare. "The Heartless under my control will remain so as long as I do not expend too much power and my hold on them lessens. I simply have to take care in what I do."

Pete nodded, his resolve returning to him. He glanced over at Orin who was sitting on the floor reading the journal Maleficent had promised him.

"So what about the kid? How can we use him?" Pete asked gruffly.

Maleficent smirked evilly, glad to see that Pete was his boastful self again. She knew he was only useful when he had someone to hide behind, namely her. "Patience Pete... All things in due time."

"But those brats with the Keyblades are going to be looking for him." Pete whined, once more showing just how cowardly he was.

Maleficent snorted and turned to look out the window towards the town. "Those pests cannot access this tower. I made sure the all floors connecting this tower to the main gate were destroyed. The only way up they could get to this room is to climb."

Orin looked through the pages of the journal, reading every page in earnest. Not caring for what was going around him. What he was discovering about his origins were all he cared about right now.

To be continued...


	13. Deeper and deeper

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I DO own the OCs. If you'd like to use them in a fic, just tell me.

Am I Heartless?

Part 13

Meanwhile at Disney Castle things had been rather quiet. King Mickey had been patiently awaiting the reports from his court magician and the captain of the Disney knights.

Right on time both Goofy and Donald came in and hurried over to the throne. Silently King Mickey wondered if he could just move this throne towards the door a couple hundred yards. So people wouldn't have to run all the way over just to tell him what was going on?

"Your majesty! The Heartless are gathering outside the castle!" Donald quacked, trying to catch his breath once he had delivered his message.

"Are they getting in?" The King inquired.

Donald shook his head. "No, I think the Cornerstone of Light is keeping them out."

Goofy nodded, but he had to tell the rest of their report. Donald was out of breath. Absently Goofy thought that he needed to relax a little more often. "But there's this one big Heartless outside that keeps tilting its head to look through the windows."

King Mickey blinked. "How big is it?"

"Oh... Real big." Goofy said, pointing out one of the windows.

Outside the window they could clearly see a Darkside, an enormous muscular humanoid Heartless with a heart shaped hole in it's chest, a tangled web of tendrils that were a mockery of hair, and large yellow eyes typical for any Heartless. Its large glowing orbs were darting around the throne room this way and that, looking for something that clearly wasn't there. Before long the giant moved back to look into other room of the castle and could no longer be seen from the throne room, much to the relief of Donald, Goofy and the King.

"Keep your eyes open guys." The King said. "I don't want something to happen like when the Cornerstone was stolen to happen again. And I especially don't want THAT thing getting in."

Both Donald and Goofy rigidly saluted and began the long walk back to the main hallway.

---

Kairi, Sora, and Riku followed Yuffie along the rooftops. The ninja girl had insisted upon it, saying that it was 'quicker'. Just as Yuffie had told them, the Heartless were attacking everything. Some were clawing the buildings trying to get in, larger tougher Heartless were smashing open boxes and barrels to see what was inside then abandon the contents on the ground. But even though the townsfolk were outside and fleeing from the Heartless they still weren't paying the people any notice.

"Strange stuff..." The ninja girl muttered.

"Yeah. Usually the Heartless are only interested in Hearts." Kairi said. "It's unusual that they are passing up the opportunity to get them this easily."

"They must be looking for Orin. He said that the Heartless have been hunting him. But the real question is why?" Riku said, restating what Orin had told them on the islands to Yuffie.

Yuffie knew that part of this destruction was her fault. If she hadn't been so impulsive than this might not have happened. Still, the thought of all the work Leon would make her do once this was all over made it all to clear that she had to stop the Heartless now before they wreaked the whole town. Knowing Leon, Yuffie knew that if that happened than Leon and Cid would make her do all the heavy lifting for a week solid. Especially if he didn't see her helping out with this infestation.

Yuffie took a deep breath and hopped down as she threw her shuriken, taking out three Shadows before it returned to her hand. Undeterred, the other Heartless ignored her completely and continued their trashing of the town.

Riku and Sora looked at each other, and after exchanging shrugs they summoned their Keyblades and leapt down to help take care of the Heartless.

"What am I? Chopped liver?" Kairi complained to no one in particular. Then much to her surprise the Keyblade that Riku gave her back in The world that never was appeared in her hand. Kairi looked at it, it was about the size of Riku's Way to the dawn Keyblade, appeared to be made out of twisted wood, and had a keychain shaped like a Paopu fruit.

"Well... Nice to see you again." Kairi said to the weapon. Its appearance reminded her of the old Paopu tree that they used to hang around back when she and her friends were kids. "I think I'll call you... 'Summer days'."

And with that she joined in attacking the Heartless. Albeit not as gracefully as Sora or Riku.

---

"After a few tests I have found that contact living creatures results with a unique transformation. Upon said contact this special Heartless reverts to a feral Heartless form. Such transformation can be described as subject's skin turning black, glowing eyes, and claws forming from the subject's hands. After further testing I have concluded that the reason for this extreme reaction is due to the creature knowing that it is false. The heart beat of another being results in the subconscious realization that it is a Heartless, in other words suppressing the false memories I have implanted, and reverts to its natural state."

Orin stopped reading and punched the wall. Much to his surprise he had cracked the hard reinforced stone wall without injuring his hand. Orin held his head, he didn't feel well at all. He felt like his world had collapsed around him and was now in a terrifying bastardization of it. Was this book accurate or was that witch just in league with the writer of this book? Or for that matter had she just wrote it to mess with his mind? Orin shook his head. Something about this seemed to ring true. His lack of any non specific childhood memories, anything other than cold hard fact that is. He knew faces, names, places, what some of those people were like and what they did but nothing else. Some one could easily make that sort of information up on the spot if they had the time. Reluctantly he decided to continue reading.

"Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the very Heartless I had used to create this human like creature contains the heart of that pathetic janitor Jerrad. I can only imagine the irony, I had given this creature memories of being his own father. I can only imagine the look on its face if it every learned the truth. Oh delicious irony the gods weave..."

"I see you are still reading the journal of that egotistical fool."

Orin looked up to see Maleficent looming over him. Gritting his teeth he went back to reading much to the chagrin of the witch.

"I have read that book over many times." Maleficent said, enjoying the fact that she knew more about him than he did at this point. She was glad that she had decided to keep that old book. "So my boy, what do you think of yourself?"

"Shut up ya old hag." Orin muttered. He didn't appreciate her lording over him like this. Nor did he like her reminding him of his 'condition'.

Maleficent only smirked at his rude remark. In a way she was pleased to see that he was in such a foul mood. It meant that he had discovered what the book held in its pages. That he was nothing more than a little Heartless given the form and memories of a human that never truely existed.

Orin sighed, shaking his head. She wasn't going to leave him alone until he asked... "Okay... What exactly do you want from me?"

"Nothing at all my dear..." Maleficent cooed. "As I told you before, it is only a small task."

Orin groaned loudly. What choice did he have? "I'm listening..."

---

Slowly, with the combined might of Leon, Yuffie, Aerith, and Tifa the Keybladers were managing to drive the remaining Heartless away. The Heartless would find themselves in fewer company than they preferred to travel in and would disappear back to where ever they had previously come from.

Once the Keyblade wielders had stopped fighting they gathered outside Merlin's house.

"Hey Kairi, you were doing pretty good out there with that Keyblade." Sora congratulated his lifelong friend. "Isn't that the one Riku gave you back when we fought Xigbar? Xemnas's right hand guy?"

"You mean the gun toting eye-patch guy?" Kairi inquired, but she hated answering Sora's question with another question so she held up her Keyblade and added: "Yeah it is. I just... thought about helping you guys out and it just appeared in my hand."

Sora laughed. "Yeah, it takes a while to get used to that."

Riku smiled, seeing Kairi fight along side them was a major boost to his self esteem. He was proud of her. "Good to know there's another person that can help in a fight. You've toughened up Kairi."

"Thanks Riku." Kairi said, looking at her Keyblade. "So um... how do I get it to go awa- AH!"

Kairi yelped in surprise as her new Keyblade vanished in a quick burst of twinkling light. The boys just chuckled at her surprise, only to earn a lump on the head from the red head.

"Looks like you two need to learn how to treat a woman better."

All three Islanders looked back to see Cloud walking up towards them.

"Cloud!" Sora exclaimed. Once more glad to see the spiky haired swordsman. But only for an instant before he realized Cloud hadn't helped in the fight against the Heartless. "Where've you been? We could've used the help."

Cloud ignored nest head's irritated remark about him. He had something more important to say than an argumentative response. "The Heartless aren't retreating."

"What do you mean Cloud?" Riku asked, something about this guy put Riku off. Maybe it was that he reminded him too much of himself. "They ran off when they figured out they were kicking their butts."

"They're gathering around the remains of the old tower outside of town." Cloud stated bluntly. "They lost interest in the town."

To be continued...

A/N: Summer days is all I could think of to name that Keyblade Riku gave Kairi, since it was never named to my knowledge.

-Raises hand- You want to review... You like to review... These aren't the droids you're looking for...


	14. Obstacles

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I DO own the OCs. If you'd like to use them in a fic, just tell me.

Am I Heartless?

Part 14

Sora wished Cloud had extra room on that motorcycle of his. For once he'd like a lift to somewhere important instead of having to walk the whole way there. He could've at least offered to be a gentleman and take Kairi or Yuffie along. But of course Cloud had to be himself and take off before anyone could ask.

They were now running as fast as they could through the reconstruction site. The Heartless had done considerable damage to the equipment. The cranes had had their doors torn off and the casing ripped to shreds and scattered about like confetti.

Cid and Leon sat against the wall next to their weapons. Leon's Gunblade was empty of all its rounds and Cid was currently using an old worn whetstone to sharpen the blade of his spear.

"You guys okay?" Yuffie asked, concerned for her two hometown friends.

"Yeah, we're just dandy..." Cid grumbled, noting another large niche in his weapon that he'd have to get out in the future. "Those Heartless were tearing all our construction equipment apart. After we gave them a good lickin' they turned tail and ran."

Leon pointed down towards The Maw. "The ones that weren't slain ran off towards there."

"Did Cloud pass by here?" Yuffie asked.

"Spike head?" Cid responded, using a well deserved nickname for Cloud. "No, why do you ask?"

"No..." Yuffie hung her head. 'Why is that pain in the ass never around when you need him...?'

"Cloud might'a went back out ot hunt more Heartless. It's not like they're in short supply these days." Cid continued, not seeming very worried about Cloud. "Tifa took off during the fight. She might'a seen ol spikes and took off after him."

"Okay, thanks guys. We're heading off for the Deep Depths." Riku said flatly. He didn't want to stand around talking while the old witch had time to prepare whatever nastiness had in mind for them.

"Just be careful." Leon said. "The Heartless are acting strange, there's no telling what they might do."

The group nodded in acknowledgement and hurried off. Leaving both Cid and Leon alone to recoup from their encounter with the Heartless and look around at the broken machinery.

Cid looked over at Leon. "You know Yuffie's going to have to clean all this up."

Leon smirked, amused at the thought of her whining and complaining as she picked up all the broken bits and slivers of metal all by herself. "Oh yeah."

---

Meanwhile in the recesses of the ruined castle, Orin stood before a large black door. This door was set in the cracked wall of one of the towers, but unlike everything else in the broken estate this door was undamaged. The doors themselves were a solid black, more than likely made of a stone like obsidian or onyx. It was reinforced with shiny steel braces that also held the large ring door openers. It wasn't a very foreboding door but it looked like it was meant to hold something in or keep something out.

"So you just want me to open this door?" Orin asked, looking back Maleficent. She had explained what she had wanted him to do before leading him to this door. But he couldn't shake a numbing feeling coming from this door. Like the feeling you get when you're out in the cold for so long you feel your bones themselves becoming chilled.

"Yes," Maleficent said calmly. "According to what is written in that Journal only a speaking Heartless has the power to wrench it open. And you my boy are the only one that can do that."

"I... don't understand." Orin blinked at the witch. This had been an all too eye opening day. He had only just discovered why he had these powers, why he couldn't touch anyone without going mad. For the moment Orin forced these questions from his mind to focus on this question: What did this with want exactly? "What's behind this door?"

"Why it's your home of course." Maleficent said strolling up behind Orin. Her long robe trailing behind her, making it seem as if she was almost gliding along the floor. "Behind this door is the Realm of Darkness, home to all Heartless. On the other side of this door you wouldn't have to hurt another soul my child."

That struck Orin like an arrow, she knew about when Yuffie had... why was he thinking about her? She didn't really care about him. He had told her and she still pushed his buttons. But what about opening this door? Was it really what Maleficent claimed or was did it lead to something horrible? Then again what did he have to loose? If Sora and Riku heard about that he had nearly turned Yuffie into a Heartless than they would try to slay him and he in turn would have to flee or if worse came to worse have to fight them. He didn't want either of that to happen, he wished that he was just a normal kid like Sora... only without the nest head hair.

Orin placed his hands on the door and pushed with all his strength, only to mentally slap himself upon remembering the door had door openers meaning it opened outward. However his second attempt was as fruitless as his first. He couldn't even budge it. Defeated he leaned against the door.

Maleficent sighed, 'This is what I get for using a child...' The witch thought, thrusting the journal into Orin's chest. "The answer to opening this door is in here. I suggest you get busy. Your former friends are coming and I don't think they will be happy to see you."

With that the witch disappeared in a wreath of green and black flames. Leaving Orin alone in front of the door with Xehanort's journal and more than a little perplexed by her sudden departure. Regardless, Orin leaned against the wall and opened the journal and began to read through its latter entries.

"_I am currently pleased with my recent experiment. He seems to be more adjusted and intelligent than my other attempts at creating a humanoid from their dark make up. Words fail to describe the others, they are not as aware as my latest creation, nor are they as human. Granted this Shadow creation is not perfect it does have potential. I have tried infusing memories into the others but they seemed to reject them and descend into madness making them useless to me. If that's possible for these soulless things that is_."

"Others...?" Orin said to the book. "Like me?"

Orin hung his head, what was he supposed to feel? He knew he was supposed to feel something, anger, surprise, sadness, but nothing came. In his heart he felt numb, like it didn't matter that there were other creatures like him. 'What is wrong with me?'

---

Sora and the others had had little resistance from other Heartless as they raced towards the tower. Only a few local Heartless like the heavily armored Morning Stars. Large ball like Heartless covered in a metal like armor with spikes and two large claws that stuck out an almost ridiculous length from their bodies. They liked to spin like a top, using their clawed appendages to slice their strike their enemies. They were highly resistant to damage but if knocked into the air they could be subject to a devastating combo that could easily slay them.

As they fought these Heartless Sora couldn't help but think: If Orin was a Heartless that was made into a good person, wouldn't it be possible to lead these Heartless back to a path of good? Or at least make it so they weren't mindless killers, you know, give them consciousness? If they did that enough times then maybe the Realm of Darkness would no longer be a threat to the Realm of Light.

Finally after reaching the Dark Depths, where Cloud had disappeared with Sephiroth during their duel the group stopped. One little detail remained to be solved, how were they going to get down the side of the cliff?

"I don't suppose you know some sort of ninja trick that can get us down there do you?" Sora asked, looking over his shoulder at Yuffie.

Yuffie took a look over the edge of the cliff, shuddered in an attempt to keep her lunch down, and backed off. "No way can I get down there by myself much less help you guys down."

"Maybe I can help you down." Said a gruff voice.

The gang whipped around to see a familiar and unwelcome face. Standing there was Pete as confidant as can be with a small platoon of Soldiers. Each of these heartless were clanking and hopping up and down in a hyperactive manner.

"Pete? You're still around?" Sora said in a tone that could only be described as having only mild interest within it. Sora really hadn't expected to see Pete again and since he, Donald, and Goofy had beaten Pete on various occasions and he knew that with Yuffie, Kairi, and Riku's help he didn't expect much opposition from the fat flunky.

Pete wasn't dumb enough to not catch the disrespect in the brown haired kid's voice, not that Maleficent would agree. Pete stomped his feet in a short temper tantrum and bellowed out his order to his Heartless to attack.

Yuffie chuckled lightly at the sight of the Soldiers running towards them. "Man, I haven't seen these guys in a while. I remember they used to be pretty tough back in Transverse Town."

Sora nodded in agreement. These Heartless were barely a threat, maybe if Pete had them in numbers in the thousands Sora would be nervous but not in the dozens. He summoned his Kingdom Key, as did Riku and his Way to the Dawn, and Kairi's newly named Summer Days Keyblade.

They never got to use them. Before the Soldiers could engage their enemies Shadows began to appear and surround the armored Heartless. The Soldiers seemed vaguely confused by the actions of their lesser cousins and shrank back until they were caught back to back with the Shadows circling them like hungry predators.

Pete meanwhile was disgusted with his Heartless's cowardess and shouted; "You worthless ninnies! Get in there and show those rouge Heartless what's for!"

The Soldiers seemed somewhat bolstered by Pete's words and attacked the other Heartless with their red claws only to be swarmed and slain by their smaller cousins who instantly turned to small glowing hearts and floated off. To where none could really say.

Pete was now faced with two choices: Either fight all four of these kids, three of which had those nasty Keyblades or run and beg Maleficent not to turn him into something unpleasant. He took the latter option and fled for his life back out towards the Maw.

Sora smiled as he watched Pete flee. "Some things never change."

"You've met that guy before?" Yuffie asked, cocking an eyebrow at the Sora and the others.

"Yeah, his name's Pete. He's one of Maleficent's flunkies. He said he was working for her before we liberated Hallow Bastion from Xemnas." Sora said. "Me, Donald, and Goofy fought him a few times. He might be big but he's not much of a fighter and he's likes to running when the going gets tough and hiding behind Maleficent and her magic."

"That old witch? Man I hoped that we saw the last of her when you guys beat the Organization..." Yuffie said disappointedly.

"But that still doesn't tell us how we're going to get down from here." Riku said pointing out the obvious. "If I still had the power of the Realm of Darkness I could just-"

"Well you don't. But I think I have an answer for that." Sora said, holding out his Keyblade. With a thrust into the air and a burst of light a small flittering ball of light appeared and zipped around the group before coming to a rest on Sora's head.

Sora smiled up at the small fairy that sat on his head. "Hey Tink, think you can give us a hand?"

To be continued...


	15. Incoming darkness

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I DO own the OCs. If you'd like to use them in a fic, just tell me.

Am I Heartless?

Part 15

Maleficent sneered as she listened to Pete's blubbering and pleading for her forgiveness at her feet. She had heard all of his excuses so many times she no longer seemed to hear them. She just knew her patience with his incompetence was running thin.

"Silence!" Maleficent thundered, unleashing a gale of wind strong enough to knock even Pete's tremendous bulk back towards the wall. "Enough of your blubbering you buffoon! Now tell me why you are back so soon. Even YOU cannot fail that quickly."

"It was the Heartless, they just appeared and just... well, destroyed the ones I brought with me." Pete blubbered as he crawled back to Maleficent's feet, bowing so low on the ground you might've thought he was laying on the hard stone floor. "Those other Heartless are completely out of control! What are we going to do?"

"Enough of your sniveling, I have the situation under control." The old witch sneered as she whacked the ground by Pete's head with her staff. "The child I brought here is going to end that problem for us."

Pete had covered his head with his hands after the strike of her staff, but now he felt brave enough to look up at her. "What is that kid for anyway Maleficent?"

"You shall soon see Pete." Maleficent said, walking over to the balcony to pet her beloved overgrown raven. However something in the sky caught her attention. "Pete, we are about to have company. Do stay here and make sure they are entertained."

And with that the old witch vanished in flames, as did seem to be her custom.

As Pete lifted himself off the ground he let out a relieved sigh. He knew he had gotten off easy. If that kid had not become Maleficent's new source of amusement she might've used her magic and turned him into a toad as she had threatened or if worse came to worse she could've thrown him to the Heartless.

---

Meanwhile in the lower floors of the castle Orin flipped through the pages of the book once more, maybe he'd see something he hadn't noticed before. Indeed he did, the last page of the book was stuck to the inside of the back cover. Idly Orin read aloud;

"_The door that I found within the castle that gave me the glimpse of the dark power I now hold is now locked. I myself have used my own newfound power to make sure that only I can reopen it in case those that would serve me would betray me. The following is the incantation for opening the door if I should ever need to call on its power again:_

_Into the kingdom of darkness again_

_Across the bridge of death, beyond the gates of light_

_Into the heart of darkness, into the black of night_

_Into the darkness I command my soul_

_Never shall I repent, never shall I be saved._

_I go into the house of death_

_Before my last breath my enemies all shall die…"_

That last line left a foul taste in his mouth. Orin didn't like a single word of those lines, they just weren't things he would say. Orin didn't like to talk about death or darkness or things like that nature. Such things reminded him that he of what he really was. But should that really bother him? He's a Heartless, but he didn't feel evil or wanted to destroy things. That is... until someone touched him like Yuffie did. Then again what Maleficent said had merit, he was a creature of darkness and as long as that was evident the people this side of the door would never truly accept him as he is. In the end Sora, Riku, and even Kairi would try to slay him. To them he was nothing more than a heart stealing monster. Orin would gladly open these doors and resign to the depths of the world on the other side.

---

"Whee! Man this fun!" Kairi cried aloud as she did a barrel roll.

Yuffie however had one hand on her mouth to keep her lunch down and the other to hang on to Riku's waist because she couldn't think of any 'happy thoughts' at the moment other than being on the ground.

Sora just smiled, flying by use of Tinkerbell's fairy dust was the fastest and certainly one of the funest way of traveling to the old castle that sat within the gorge past the Deep Depths. The fairy that had given them this taste of her power flew with them, ensuring that they would not fall to the hard crystal ground below until they arrived at the castle.

"Hey, that tower up ahead looks like a good spot to set down!" Kairi pointed out, indicating the tower left of the large Heartless symbol that was now falling into ruin along with the rest of the castle. Their landing was an ungreeted one, not a single Heartless could be seen from the tower's balcony nor in the small room just inside the open doorless entrance.

"Doesn't look like anyone's home." Yuffie said, peeking inside the tower. She was already feeling much better now that she had something solid under her feet. But truth be told she was almost glad to see that no one was home. She didn't want to fight so soon after that flight. It meant she'd have to kick butt then get ready for another trip through the air.

"I wonder what the old biddy is planning." Yuffie wondered out loud.

"Well, what ever it is it won't happen." Riku said. "I know the Maleficent, and I don't have to tell you she's pure evil."

Yuffie shook her head. "She and the Heartless were the main thing that drove us from Radiant Garden in the beginning. Xehanort or whatever he was calling himself at the time just kinda sat back and watched."

Sora scratched his head, he was glad that things were so much better here but at the same time he was a little worried that if things didn't go well the people of this world might loose their home again. "Well the only ways out of this room is a hundred foot fall and those stairs over there. I guess we're gonna see what else is in this crumbling castle."

Sora hadn't finished when a small hand jerked his ear. He turned to see Tinkerbell tapping her foot in midair. She had been waiting to be sent back to Neverland for sometime now.

Kairi giggled at Tinkerbell's way of getting Sora's attention. She'd have to remember to do that next time she wanted to get messy hair's attention. "Forceful ain't she?"

"Oh yeah.., Sorry Tink..." Sora sweat dropped as he focused his thoughts and raised the Kingdom Key, sending the small pixie back to her home in a flash of light. Afterwards he turned to his friends. "Okay guys, let's go."

Pete however had been hiding just around the corner of the stairway and leaped out at them as soon as they began to descend. "You aren't getting past- OW!"

Pete didn't even get to finish his threat as Riku just pushed him over and quickly stepped over him. Pete was about to get up when three more pairs of feet plowed over him and hurried off further down the spiraling stairway.

Pete lifted his head up, feeling a little groggy from having his head stepped on a few times. "Hey... That wasn't all that nice you little brats..."

Pete would've chased after them but as he got up all the blood rush to his head made him dizzy and almost comicly he tripped over his own feet and knocked his head on the wall. If Pete had had any more momentum he would've been sent rolling down the steps like a large rubber ball. But thankfully for Pete, Sora and the gang, and the steps (XD) he only flopped down like a beached whale and went into a peaceful sleep. Leaving our heroes to transverse the stairs uninterrupted.

Finally, after seemed all too much like Castle Oblivion with it's nigh endless staircases they reached the bottom. Where in they could guess this must be the basement of the castle, the room was made of darker stone than the others they had seen, or maybe it was just water damage from the castle having so many holes in it. There was a large black door bearing the Heartless insignia and right in front of it sat Orin, looking at the contents of an old ratty book. More than likely it was Xehanort's journal.

"Orin!"

Orin looked over in the direction of the voice to see Sora followed closely by Riku, Kairi, and... Yuffie. She probably just came to make sure they finished him off. Orin gave them a glance before staring back at the book. He wasn't really reading it, he was waiting for them to either make their initial insults or just attack upon sight. He didn't really care if they liked him anymore. Right now even he didn't really even like himself.

Kairi looked at Yuffie, expecting her to say something before anyone else did. But surprisingly the ninja girl just looked away, not wanting to look at Orin. That memory sparked a quick chill in Yuffie's chest where Orin had tried to yank her heart out. Yuffie placed her hand on her heart and tried to calm herself down as quickly as possible.

Familiar sinister green flames flickered behind where Orin sat, before coming a tall blaze of green and black flames. Out of which stepped Maleficent looking as smug and confidant as ever.

"I see you said the incantation my boy..." Maleficent said, slinking up behind Orin. "Now..."

Unexpectedly Maleficent drew a small knife from under her cloak and grabbed Orin's wrist. Orin let out a cry of pain as Maleficent used the sharp weapon to slice a gash in the young man's palm. Not only did this shock and anger Sora and the gang but they were equally surprised as dark mist, not blood Orin's wound.

"Stop it you old hag!" Kairi shouted, brandishing her Keyblade and staring daggers at Maleficent. She was not going to let her hurt Orin any further. He still needed to talk to Yuffie and make things right, even if she had to force them to.

None to gently Maleficent shoved Orin's leaking palm onto the door which seemed to greedily take in the mist from Orin's hand. Barely a moment had pasted since she had pressed the wound to the black stone surface and the symbol on the door began to glow red.

Maleficent allowed Orin to yank back his arm, which only now began to close and hinder the flow of his shadowy essence. For Orin the sight of that same mist coming out of his hand that came out of slain Heartless was a clincher. There was no longer any doubt in his mind what he was. He flopped down on the floor and just stared at his hand as it slowly began to close.

"That's enough Maleficent!" Sora shouted, hoisting his Kingdom Key as he began to charge at the old witch. "You're through!"

Riku and the girls took up their weapons and followed them into combat.

"Now now my dears," Maleficent cooed as she pushed on the door. "Let me get the door for you."

The door let out a loud groan as it slowly began to open inwards. As it did the light in the room began to fade, effectively stopping the Keybladers in their tracks. Orin's now glowing yellow eyes could be made out even in the encroaching darkness.

Sora tried casting a few fire spells to perhaps brighten up the room but they only lit a radius of inches beyond their flames. Other eyes began to appear in the darkness, Heartless were coming out of the door and trying move along the walls behind them to try and flank them.

Sora tried to swing at the Heartless but it was too late. Darkness filled the room.

To be continued...

A/N: I'm not exactly thrilled with the final version of the incantation. All I really did in the end was alter some lyrics from Manowar's song 'House of Death'. But it was the best I could think up at the time because I wanted to get this one up ASAP.


	16. Others

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I DO own the OCs. If you'd like to use them in a fic, just tell me.

Am I Heartless?

Part 15

The last thing Sora remembered was the darkness coming from beyond the door, encompassing the room where he and his friends had stood. There was still darkness clouding his vision, but now he could feel the softness of what he could only guess was a bed from the springs under the mattress material.

"Hey Sora, nice to see you're awake." A voice came from the darkness, most likely Leon's from the sound of it. "How you feel?"

Sora opened his eyes, or at least he think did. No matter how hard he strained to see or open his eyes a little farther, he still couldn't see anything but black. Suddenly it dawned on him. "I'm blind aren't I?"

"Yeah. But you aren't the only one. Riku, Kairi, and Yuffie are in the same boat as you." Leon said. "Merlin just got back and he took a look at you all and said he'd whip you up something to fix your eyes. So don't worry about it."

Sora smiled even though he couldn't see his hand in front of his face. Then he remembered what was important. "How'd we get here? The last thing I remember was being swallowed up by darkness inside the castle..."

"You better start getting better soon. The Heartless are back to their old selves." Leon muttered. "I don't know what happened but you better start explaining."

"Just a moment Leon." A familiar aged voice said as the sound of a door opening came to Sora's ears. "Just let me get this poor child back to his old self and then let him explain himself."

Sora heard who he knew to be the old wizard Merlin walking over towards him. "Hi Merlin. How was the king?"

"He and the rest of his world is untouched by the Heartless thanks to the Cornerstone's powers." Merlin said flatly, laying a wrinkled hand on Sora's forehead. "Now hold still boy and keep your eyes open..."

Sora didn't know what Merlin was about to do but did as he was told. The next thing he knew was some cold liquid being poured onto his eyes. Instantly Sora clenched his eyes shut and sat up to wipe the cold solution from his face.

"I apologize for the temperature of my potion Sora, but this particular form of blindness was tricky to cure. The only way my potion would retain its potency was to keep it as cold as it is."

"What do you think caused their blindness Merlin?" Leon asked.

"I have seen this kind of affliction on several occasions from people who had dealings with an old acquaintance of mine." Merlin then looked back at Leon. "Have you ever heard of Mad Madam Mim?"

Leon shook his head. He had never heard of anyone by that name.

"Then count yourself lucky lad." Merlin then went on to explain who this Mim person was. "She's an old witch I had the displeasure of knowing back before I even knew my young friend Wart- er Arthur."

Sora meanwhile was clenching his eyes shut and opening them wide to try to help his eyes focus more. His sight was returning but now it was little more than a blur. He could see colors and movement but distinct shapes seemed to bleed into each other.

"How do you feel now Sora?" The magician asked, stroking his ankle long beard. One wondered how he could have facial hair that long and not step on it occasionally.

Sora shook his head, his vision now at last returning to normal. "Better now that I can see you guys. About the others..."

"I just gave them each a dose of my potion. They're all fine." Merlin said, putting the empty potion bottle back within the confines of his blue robe. "Good thing you woke up when you did. Any later and I would've had to put it back in Mr. Scrooge's freezer."

"Well, it's good to see you both again." Sora smiled, looking from Leon to Merlin. He was glad that he could see once more but he still wanted to see his friends. "Where are the others?"

"They're up and about and talking to Cid in Merlin's house." Leon said. "You were the only one knocked out when we found you."

This was news to Sora. He was glad that everyone sounded like they where fine but there was still what had happened back in the castle. What is Maleficent planning?

"Hate to break up this reunion," Cid said, walking into the room. "I've been getting strange readings from the outskirts of town."

"What kind of readings?" Leon asked, once more becoming the grim parent figure for the entire town.

Cid scratched the side of his head and took the toothpick he had been chewing on out of his mouth before speaking. Silently he wished he could break the promise he had made to his girlfriend Shera about not smoking his cigars anymore. "Well, my best guess it's something wicked fast because it's here one second and another it's another spot on the map."

"I better take a look." Leon said, turning to look at Sora who still sat on the bed. "You coming?"

Sora jumped off the bed and stretched his legs, something he felt he had to do every time he woke up ever since he had awoken from being trapped inside that cocoon in Twilight town. "Yeah, I'm coming."

The greeting Sora received from his friends was an ecstatic one. Kairi's hug nearly crushed the air out of his lungs. After Kairi had been detached Yuffie slapped the spiky haired boy on the back that knocked him over. Riku however just stood there and smiled, showing his relief in the most subtle way possible.

"Good to see you again Sora." Kairi said, blushing a little from how she had just death hugged her oldest friend.

Sora rubbed his aching back from where Yuffie had hit him and sighed. "Same here. So where all of us were blinded by what happened back in the castle?"

Riku nodded. "Yeah, we don't know how we made it out of the castle though. It's like one minute we were surrounded by darkness and the next we were being picked up by Cloud."

"So Cloud brought us here?" Sora asked.

Leon nodded. "Yeah, and after he brought you here Tifa gave him a stern talking to."

The gang laughed at that image. Cloud getting chewed out like a little kid by Tifa Lockheart was too much.

Leon smirked, he knew they'd get a kick out of hearing that. "Tifa left with Cloud before he left her behind again. We won't be seeing them for a while."

Suddenly, almost as if on cue the door burst open. Tifa had Cloud's limp unconscious form draped over her shoulders and lugging him inside before setting her boyfriend on the floor.

"Hey, can we get a hand here?" Tifa urgently inquired, looking at each of them with her brown eyes.

Tifa had blood on her hands and fore arms and she had torn some of the material of her pant legs to make quick bandages that were covering Cloud's arms. Cloud's shirt and his right pant leg were cut and torn showing bloodied gashes made by a sharp weapon. Tifa on the other hand had no injuries other than a small clean cut on her cheek. Whatever they had ran into it obviously wasn't nice.

"Tifa! What happened to Cloud?" Sora asked, worried for the spiky haired soldier.

"We were ambushed by this sword wielding maniac on a horse on our way back to town." Tifa laid a hand on Cloud's forehead, hoping that he would be okay. "Cloud tried to counterattack but that freak managed to knock Cloud's sword out of his hand and did all this. I had to kick the horse's knees and knock it down so we could get away. But he lost a lot of blood on the way here."

"We'll go check it out." Sora then looked at the ninja girl. "You coming too Yuffie?"

Yuffie nodded her affirmative. "I've been with you this far. Besides we need to work on finding Orin and I think Cloud might give me a little more respect if I got a little revenge for him."

Riku smirked. This girl had a lot of guts to come with them. With a little practice Kairi could probably be as strong and skillful as Yuffie in time.

"Well then be careful. This thing could be a new kind of Heartless or something new." Cid said.

"Okay. Take care of things guys!" Sora said, heading out the door with his friends following him.

After they were gone Cid looked at Leon. "Yuffie's been a lot more out going lately."

Leon shrugged, he didn't really care. He had other things to worry about, namely having to call off meeting Aerith at her new flower shop. "She just wants to get out of working."

Cid wasn't sure, if that was the case she'd be complaining more than she had.

As the gang entered the reconstruction area they heard a loud maniacal laugh off in the distance of the Ravine followed by the beating of hooves.

---

Deep within Radiant Garden in a small room made long before Orin, now little more and a shadow of his former self. He skulked around in rooms that had not seen the light of day in many years. Although the darkness was thick his glowing yellow eyes pierced the darkness like a sharp knife. Around him stood many large tubes, not unlike that which he himself had come out of. He could make out that in some of the tubes were occupied but their features were obscured by a strange dark green fluid that they floated within the tubes. As he walked through the rows and rows he quickly noticed a large switch bolted to the nearest wall. With what human curiosity was left in him he used his now clawed hand to pull it down. Upon completing this rather mundane action the lights came on. This included small lights within the underside of the tubes that somehow made the fluids inside the containers become transparent. Orin then noticed something, something that shook him to his core. The tube on the very end was shattered and there was a large green stain on the tile floor where the fluids had dried. This was the tube that HE had come out of.

After inspecting the tube next to the one that was shattered and empty, Orin discovered a child about his age. He was wearing the same outfit Orin was wearing, he was about a foot taller than him, and instead of antennas he had black thick curled up cords that were a mock imitation of hair. The final thing that Orin noticed about him is that although this... creature's eyes were open they neither moved or seemed to contain any thoughts or will of its own. It was little more than a doll. A doll made by a mad man.

Maleficent smirked as she watched Orin stare at the lifeless dolls in the other containers. She was pleased that he had reverted to such a pure form. She was also glad to have sent her old acquaintance the Headless Horseman after the Keyblade wielder. She knew he was a powerful opponent and had yet to fall in combat, but she knew that she had thought the same way about herself and she had lost to that little brat.

Her attention was suddenly brought back to Orin as she head him smash open a tube and its contents spill out onto the floor. Orin completely ignored the unknown chemicals that were spilling onto his feet and shins and looked at the slumping figure in the tube. The lifeless body of the other Heartless child was still not moving.

"So my boy, how does it feel to meet your dear lifeless siblings?" Maleficent said smoothly as she appeared in the room. "Ansem- excuse me Xehanort once showed this room to me. These dolls were his earlier creations. Imperfect and unable to cope with human memories. I believe the one you now opened was created from a Darkside Heartless."

Orin looked back to the lifeless Heartless child. Orin remembered what Xehanort's journal had said about these other children. They could not hold the memories of a life that never existed and descended into madness or in this one's case, simply stopped moving. Orin felt a sense of pity for this Heartless. It was trapped by the life Xehanort had tried to create to make it a living thinking thing and by his actions had actually done the opposite. With a swift movement of Orin's claws he slew the other Heartless child. Certain he would've wanted to die than remain in that limbo of an existence. Orin watched as the child's remains dissolved into dark mist and a glistening heart floated off in the same manner as the Heartless he had slain back on Destiny Islands. To Orin this was like a foreshadowing of his own death. That is what it will be like when he dies. Slowly he felt an unfathomable rage begin to boil up from within him. Was this all he had to look forward to? A violent death at the hands of someone? All of Orin's pent up emotions erupted in the form of a half human screech as he began to smash open the other glass tubes with his dark claws.

Maleficent meanwhile enjoyed the sight of Orin falling farther and farther into his darker side. Now that the Heartless where under her control she would soon be able to regain power over this world before the townsfolk could gather its strength, still she wanted to see what would happen if she pushed her newest pawn a little deeper into the darkness.

To be continued...

A/N: Although not shown in the Kingdom Hearts series, the Headless horseman did appear in a Disney anthology film voiced by Bing Crosby, in fact it was the last film of its kind. It was one of the staple cartoons I watched when I was a kid.

Madam Mim was the only notable person in Sword in the stone who could be called a villain. Not only was Sword in the stone my favorite Disney animated movie growing up, Madam Mim was also my favorite Disney villain. She was always so off her rocker.


	17. The Rider

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I DO own the OCs. If you'd like to use them in a fic, just tell me.

Am I Heartless?

Part 17

"Did you hear that?" Yuffie asked, her short black hair standing on end.

The others were not pleased to admit it but they had heard the same sounds as Yuffie. The loud beating of hooves on stone and metal echoed from the walls of the construction site, making it hard to pin point where it was coming from. The group gathered in a circle, back to back to protect them from every side. Kairi, Sora, and Riku summoned their Keyblades and Yuffie readied her shuriken. The hoof beats became louder and louder, further increasing the level of tension as they waited for whatever it was to show itself. The sounds just continued to grow in volume and intensity until it felt to the group that he should be right in front of them. But all the sudden the hooves ceased their galloping, leaving the area with an eerie dead silence.

"Uh... Sora?" Kairi whimpered as she looked back at the brown haired boy. She had never faced something like this and her hands where shaking as she held her Summer Days Keyblade. If the others could've seen the Paopu fruit shaped key chain attached at the end of the handle was whipping back and forth as if it too was frightened by the silence.

"Yes Kairi?" Sora's eyes kept darting back and forth and up and down as he searched for any hint of movement or anything that would help end this unbearable amount of tension.

Riku was a little surprised by Kairi's tone. She had seen all this before and yet now she looked like she was scared out of her mind. Maybe it was a mistake to push Sora into letting her come along.

"Is it gone?" Kairi asked in a shaky voice, the young woman making it apparent to all that she was unnerved by the silence even more than the thunder of hoof beats.

"Good question... I have no idea." Sora smiled weakly, looking over his shoulder at Kairi.

Riku and Yuffie both facepalmed, Sora sure knew how to pick a time to be tackless.

Suddenly out of nowhere a deafening laugh. The gang looked up to see a man on horse back. The horse was completely black with red and when it snorted small plumes of smoke came from its nostrils. The rider was clothed in a black hooded cloak and bore in one hand a curved sword that glinted even though the sky overhead was shrouded in clouds. In the other hand he held a large flaming jack o lantern. Before the gang could react he horse stood on its hind legs and let out a loud whinny and the rider laughed again in a loud maniacal fashion and held aloft both his pumpkin and sword in each hand. As he did this the sky itself seemed to darken as if the sun itself was scared off by the sight of this rider. The horse leapt down from the wall of the chasm and landed in front of the group and once more the horse reared. Only now the hood of the rider fell back. The rider was missing his head. The gang was struck by such a terrifying opponent, but Yuffie seemed paled by the sight of this rider.

"Yuffie, what's the matter?" Riku asked as he kept both his gaze and weapon fixed on this... thing. There was no telling what it would do or when it would do it. Riku was used to being able to guess his opponent's next move by looking at their feet or their face. In this case neither was of much help.

Yuffie took a breath to steady herself. At any other time she would've turned tail and ran when facing such a foe. What made it worse was that her father had told her stories about this swordsman in the form of ghost stories. "It's the Headless Horseman..."

"Who?" Kari asked. Her current level of anxiety was not being improved upon hearing that this guy was called 'headless'.

Yuffie readied her shuriken and prepared to fight one of her childhood boogeymen. "He's a spectre that used to be the most feared warrior around. When he was beaten he was beheaded and now he won't stop until he gets his own head back."

Riku shook his head. 'Nice going Yuffie, Kairi looks like she's scared enough without all that talk about decapitation...'

"I thought that Sephiroth guy was the most feared swordsman around." Sora said, giving the ninja girl a confused look.

Yuffie shook her head. "This guy was before Sephiroth. He's no where near as bad as Sephiroth was but he's been causing mayhem even AFTER he was killed."

The rider spared no more time, with a kick he wordlessly ordered his steed to rush into battle. The Horseman held his sword above his head, ready to bring it down at any time.

"Scatter!" Riku cried, stepping in between the group and the Horseman with his own weapon raised to deflect the rider's sword.

Yuffie broke to one side and Sora the other, with Kairi right behind him. Kairi wanted to run, this enemy wasn't like the Heartless who just wanted to steal their hearts, this monster was after their heads. Both she and Sora had once lost their hearts and were lucky enough to recover, both of which were one in a million shots. If this guy was as horrible as Yuffie said then this was a real one shot only. If he got too close he'd kill them.

The Horseman swung his sword at Riku with the intent of making this a quick kill and moving on to the others. This wasn't going to be as easy as the vengeful spectre thought as Riku deflected the Headless Horseman's scimitar away. Although Riku had deflected the blow from the Horseman's weapon the sheer strength knocked the white haired lad to the ground.

Sora was next in the Horseman's line of fire. In no time the rider was about to try to cleave Sora's head off with a swing of his blade. Normally Sora would've leapt up to attack with his Kingdom Key but if he did there was a possibility the spectre would hurt Kairi. He could almost feel the red head's trebling behind him as she fought off the urge to flee from this fight. Sora swung his Keyblade, not at the Horseman but at his steed. The Kingdom Key's teeth brushed against the horse's eye, causing it to rear and flailed it's front hooves in attempt to strike at Sora itself. This inadvertently caused the Headless Horseman to topple of his steed and fall to the ground.

"Nice work Sora!" Yuffie shouted. She was staggered that Sora had actually knocked one of the most feared warriors of Hallow Bastion off his horse. In all the stories she had heard of the Headless Horseman none mentioned him being knocked off his horse. Of course no one had actually stood their ground against the ghost, they had all turned tail and tried to escape.

Kairi was very relieved to see that Sora had stopped the Horseman's charge. He didn't seem so scary now that he had landed on his back in the dirt. Her courage returning, she stepped out from behind Sora and held her Keyblade out in front of her.

The Horse man leapt to his feet with both sword and jack o' lantern still in hand. He twisted round this way and that, looking for his steed as if he still had a head. With a loud shrill whistle he called the horse over to him and leapt up into the saddle. With a quick kick he was off once more. The rider's steed took him around the group singling out their weakest link, Kairi. The Horseman barreled towards the girl, only to laugh as he ordered his horse to rear. Kairi stared in awestruck horror as the Horseman threw the flaming jack o' lantern at her. For Kairi it was if time seemed to slow down as she stared at the evil looking gourd coming straight at her. It was like she couldn't look away from its wicked mouth or move to avoid it at it closed in on her. In the final moments before it collided with her it looked like the pumpkin's mouth seemed to open up like it was going to devour her entirely. Thankful before it could Sora hit it with his Keyblade, effectively shattering the jack o' lantern and sending tiny flaming bits of pumpkin every which way.

Kairi shook her head and looked at Sora and smiled. Sora had saved her life once again, every time she seemed to be in danger he seemed to be there for her. Knowing that filled her with a newfound hope.

The Horseman reared once more and charged again, this time at Yuffie. His attack was halted as the ninja girl threw her shuriken at him. The oversized weapon was bated away by the spectre's sword and hit the nearby wall, falling to the stone floor with a clang. The Horseman swung around and made another pass at Riku only to catch the end of Riku's Keyblade in his chest. The Horseman seemed unaffected by the Way to the Dawn and swung his blade at the white haired Keyblader. Thankfully he missed taking off the young man's head but the razor sharp sword left a clean cut on his right cheek.

"This guy isn't affected by the Keyblades!" Riku cried in disbelief. "How do we fight a guy like this?"

Sora was at a loss for words, how do you fight a creature that you can't hurt and seems to have the skill of one of the most powerful warriors on this world? He had nearly felt despair come over him as he saw the end of his Kingdom Key sparkle with light. Curiously he lifted the Keyblade up into the air.

Riku's Way to the Dawn and Kairi's Summer Days likewise began to glow. Wordlessly they followed Sora's example and lifted their Keyblades into the air. A beam of light shot from each of the mysterious weapons and pierced the sky above the combatants.

The Horseman's steed reared and bucked at the sight of this and refused its master's repeated commands to attack. Whatever the Keyblades were doing neither the rider nor steed liked.

The beams of light continued up until they reached the clouds hanging overhead, which they pierced and let out a dim flash as the beams faded and no longer shone from the Keyblades. The light of the sun began to pour forth from the gaping hole in the clouds formed from the small piercings made by the beams. To the small group of teenagers it was as if the sun was just coming over the horizon. To the Headless Horseman and his black mount however it was as if they were nightmares caught in the rays of the morning sun. They both lashed about and attempted to ride back into the shadows but both disappeared into nothingness before they could make it. Leaving the group confused and bewildered at what had transpired.

Kairi was the first to ask the obvious question. "Where did the Horseman go?"

Yuffie shrugged, honestly having no clue. "The stories about him always take place at night. Maybe he can't exist in daylight. Maybe it's something else"

---

Maleficent had been experimenting with the power of the Realm of Darkness, using it to repair parts of the castle and create more Heartless. Orin was watching as she did this, each Heartless had the Heartless emblem on them just like Xehanort's artificially created ones. He sat down on the floor and watched as Hook Bats and Armored Knights patrolled the hallways. He didn't like being near other Heartless even if they were under the witch's control. Still it was better than doing her dirty work, but he wondered now that he had done what she wanted what should he do now? There was one thing that seemed to call from the back of his head. It was dull like a weak wind through the trees, only noticeable when you sat down and closed your eyes and really listened for it.

Orin stood and sneaked off towards the door that lead to the Realm of Darkness and cracked it open to peer inside. Orin felt a feeling that can only be described as magnetism come over him, he wanted to be in there, he HAD to cross over to that side. Orin's other side took control, the first time without the touch of a heartbeat and he lunged at the door with such a ferocity that his claws left scratches in the hard black stone. With a single pull Orin threw the doors open wide and gazed at the splendor that only his glowing eyes could see. He began to walk in total awe of the sight he could see within the shadows, only to be stopped as a more powerful force slammed the doors shut.

Maleficent smirked down at the young Heartless. "You shouldn't play with things you don't understand boy. But if you want to I can show the true meaning of Darkness."

To be continued...

A/N: Kind of a cop out of the fight I know but I have too much respect for the Headless Horseman to have him vanquished like some common boss. It's the old childhood favorite character respect thing, like how I was sad to have to kill Sark and the MCP in KH2. I loved seeing Tron and his Frisbee of doom again.


	18. Out of the frying pan

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, blah, blah, blah. You've heard this crap before. I DO own this fic and Orin but that's it. If you'd like to use him in a fic, just tell me.

Am I Heartless?

Part 18

Sora and the gang now stood once more at the Dark Depths. They were expecting to once more summon Tinkerbell and use her to make them fly to the castle but it seemed that Maleficent done some major redecorating. The Castle no longer seemed to be rotting from the inside like an old log. Now it stood proudly, fully restored and made from what seemed to be some sort of black material, smoothly cut stone or some other hard material of the look of it. But the most noticeable adaptation that the old witch had added to the castle was the long stretch of the same dark stone forming a slanted walkway to the castle from the spot where Sephiroth once stood gazing out to the horizon.

"Maleficent's been busy." Riku said, making the others turn to see the stern look on his face. "I guess the bridge was meant as an invitation for us."

Sora knew why Riku would be so eager to fight the witch, she was the main reason for Riku having his body taken over by Xehanort's Heartless and tormented for a year within the body of that same Heartless. Even now that he was restored to his teenage form he still harbored a deep hatred for the Maleficent.

The group slowly and cautiously began their way down the bridge, keeping an eye open for any sudden movements. They wanted to be ready for anything. The bridge was rather basic in its design, very unlike something Maleficent would want. The 'floor' of the bridge was flat with what can only be faintly described as a cobblestone like design that stretched on to the main gate. There was no sign of railing in any form along the sides of the bridge, making the gang to walk along the middle of the bridge for safety even though there was plenty of room just in case they were attacked.

The gang received no attacks from the Heartless on their trek across the black bridge, only the stiff winds that tried to edge them towards the side of the railing. Thankfully after an unknown amount of time they reached the portcullis pf the castle. A large gate of jagged black steel shaped like the top row of teeth of some great beast.

"This is new." Sora said. The young Keyblader had never in the past had to open one of these before. Wisely he thought that Riku might now how and turned to his white haired friend. "Ever had to open one of these before?"

Riku shook his head but walked up the large 'teeth' and tried to lift it. Riku tried with all his might but could not even budge it. Riku finally turned around and leaned against the portcullis to rest in defeat. "No go. It's too heavy..."

Riku tried again once his strength returned with the aid of Sora but once more they were unable to budge the heavy iron gate, not even the combined might of all four of them could lift the gates.

"How... are we going to get in there... if we can't open the gates?" Yuffie asked in between breathes. Being a ninja she was tougher than the normal person like Kairi but she wasn't used to trying to lift five ton gates. This kinda thing isn't in a normal Kisaragi ninja's training regiment.

"Hey Sora, remember when you summoned that fairy to help us out the first time we came here?" Kairi asked, turning to the wielder of the Keyblade of Light.

Sora looked at Kairi with a tired yet inquisitive look. "Yeah, what about it Kairi?"

"Can you um, 'summon' anyone one that could open this for us?" Kairi asked, not knowing if she used the right word for what Sora had done to call Tinkerbell.

Sora tapped his chin as he thought for a few minutes. But before the Riku could make a suggestion about who to summon Sora gathered some magical force from the Keyblade and swung the Kingdom Key around. To the other's surprise Sora's weapon jumped from his hands and began to shoot off blasts of magical fire, followed by a large plume of blue smoke. From this smoke a large blue form appeared.

"WHHHHOOOOOAAAA momma!" A large blue genie inquired spastically with a wide grin on his face. "Sora! Nice to see ya old buddy old pal! How ya been, what's new?"

"Hi Genie." Sora said, smiling up at the large wish granting spirit. "I've been okay."

Genie wasted no time in grabbing Sora's hand and shaking it so hard the young man was lifted off his feet with each jerk up. Once Genie was tired of shaking Sora's hand he pulled the young man into a bone crushing hug and a savage pat on the back that left Sora disoriented enough to fall backwards onto his butt.

Genie may be a bit of a spaz but his cheer and good nature was highly infectious. Kairi and Yuffie were barely controlling their giggling fits from the sheer silliness of the spirit of the lamp. Even Riku cracked a smile at how rough the friendly genie got with his best friend.

"So why'd ya call me here Sora?" Genie asked looking around at his surroundings. "Whoa, whoever designed this places needs to get out of his cave more often. I mean this place could use a little color, a little flair and this place could be one rocking pad!"

"Calm down Genie, I just need you to lift this gate." Sora explained, getting up from the black stone floor of the bridge. "Someone inside needs our help, Maleficent's back and she's planning something big."

"That hag? Brrr..." Genie shuddered. "I wouldn't want to fight that witch, she knows waaaay to many dark secrets. She might even know how to stick me back in the lamp. But as for that gate..."

In his own style of magic and flair Genie zapped the gate with a blast from his index finger. In a puff of smoke the gates turned from heavy black steel to pink foam rubber. Afterwards Genie blew on his finger much in the style of a cocky gunslinger blowing on a smoking gun.

"Thanks Genie. We owe ya one." Sora said, turning to see the others were heading inside. "Sorry but I gotta get going. You coming?"

Genie grinned but rubbed the back of his head with one of his large blue hands. "You know I think I hear Al calling me. See ya later!"

With a burst of smoke the erratic spirit was gone. Sora guessed that he wasn't keen on fighting Maleficent must've really spooked him. Regardless of the genie's departure Sora turned and ran inside after his friends.

The inside was very familiar to everyone, in fact it was a darkened reminder of the first time they had come to this castle in their first adventure. Where they stood now was in the center of a large round room with two flights of stairs leading up to a higher balcony that circled the room. Two doors sat next to each of these stairways and one larger one stood straight ahead of the entrance way. If memory served them right that door lead to the library. The only thing missing was the large chandelier that used to hang overhead.

"I wonder where Orin is in here?" Kairi said absently, speaking what was on her mind.

Yuffie looked down at the dark stone floor. What was this all about? What was she going to say to Orin when this was all over? With a strained breath she pushed these thoughts out of the way. She'd cross that bridge when she and the others had beaten Maleficent.

"Welcome fools." A cool and confidant voice suddenly said from somewhere above them. The all four of the youths looked around until Yuffie pointed out that above them on the balcony overseeing this large round entranceway was Maleficent standing with a smug look of superiority on her sickly green face. Behind her always was Pete, looking just as fat as ever.

"What are you up to?" Riku asked harshly, pointing his Way to the Dawn at Maleficent. "Tell me or I'm coming up there!"

Maleficent chuckled, seemingly amused by Riku's threat. "My dear Pete, it seems like these urchins want to fight."

Pete laughed, his large belly shaking as he did. "Well, that's not nice. Maybe we should teach these kids some manners. Maybe a spankin's in order."

"Or perhaps they need to be sent to their rooms without supper." Maleficent chuckled slightly as she put her own spin on her underling's remark. She had something better in mind...

Before anyone below could react Maleficent tapped her staff on the hard floor. The group looked around expecting to see a horde of Heartless ready to attack, but nothing did.

"Okay lady what was that al abou-WOAH!" Yuffie's outburst was stopped short by her foot being stuck to the floor. The others found themselves in much the same way.

The floor around them became fluid, each of them sinking waist deep into the floor. At first it was hard to walk through like being waist deep in water. But quickly it seemed to thicken Becoming sticky like tar and almost impossible to move in.

"We'll be seeing you... If you make it out of this one." Pete taunted as he crossed his arms and laughed.

The four teens suddenly felt that the floor was now starting to suck them downwards. Each of them began to cry out for the others as they slipped beneath the dark folds of the floor. The next thing they felt was the sensation of falling down a lightless corridor. How long they fell none of them knew, but one by one they each blacked out as they continued to fall deeper and deeper.

---

When the teens awoke they found themselves in a area completely different than Radiant Garden. The sky was black as midnight with only the faint glow of stars to light their way. From the looming shadows in the distance they could guess they were between two large mountain ranges. Beneath their feet was a thick layer of dark green grass that must have never seen a gardener's blade. Although there was grass there were no signs anywhere of any other type of vegetation like trees or flowers. Besides the rolling grass and the faint, almost still wind they could see little less. That was until Riku spotted something not far from where they stood.

Riku put a hand to forehead and squinted as he tried to make out what it was. It stood about six feet tall and seemed to be in the shape of a scrawny crooked cross. It wasn't long before the others saw it and cautiously began to advance on it. Each of them had no idea where this was and wanted to keep an eye out so to avoid being waylaid any sort of enemy. As they approached they could see that it was just a crudely made sign of no threat to them at all. The sign itself seemed to be have something roughly carved into it, so badly was the grammar they could barely even read it.

"What's that sign say Yuffie?" Sora asked, unable to read the sign.

Yuffie squinted her eyes, barely making out the words. "It says 'Valley of Shadows.'"

"'Valley of Shadows?'" Kairi repeated, confused at the sound of the name. "What does that mean?"

Riku hung his head, finally getting why it was so dark here. "I think we're in the Realm of Darkness. Riku and I have been here before, right after the defeat of Xemnas."

"Yeah. It's not like that beach we landed in after the final fight but it defiantly has a lot in common with it." Riku said solemnly, he actually had existed in this world for a time before he was discovered by Diz, who was actually the real Ansem the entire time. Riku's memory of his time here in this realm was fuzzy he was mostly preoccupied with fighting off the Heartless within and without. Regardless he wished he could be more helpful to his friends at the present time.

"This place must be bigger than I thought." Sora mentioned as he looked around. "When we were here all I saw was that the beach, I never imagined the Realm of Darkness would be as big as a world. I just kinda imagined it would be a swirling mass of empty night."

Sora bent over and picked a blade of the dark green grass. It seemed to be just like any other grass he had ever seen in his life. It felt them same as the grass on Destiny islands and it looked like it when he would camp out with his friends not far from town in the woods. All in all it was odd that anything in this world would be just like it's counterpart from home. Sora had honestly thought it would be dangerous or something.

Kairi looked around, this place just looked to her like some grassy valley close to the midnight hour. Not really as scary as she thought it would be, was the only difference between the Realms of Darkness and Light was the sun? Are there people here on this side or are the Heartless the only creatures that exist here? If they did Kairi hoped they were friendly.

Riku walked behind the sign, hoping to find some indication of where to go from where he stood. Only then did he make out the weak outline of a badly neglected dirt road that lead off into the distance in both directions.

"Hey guys, I found a path!" Riku called out to the others. "I don't know where it leads but we sure aren't going to find our way back home here."

The gang wordlessly complied as they headed towards the road and to points unknown under a clear dark sky.

To be continued...


	19. Just broke loose

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, blah, blah, blah. You've heard this crap before. I DO own this fic and Orin but that's it. If you'd like to use him in a fic, just tell me.

Am I Heartless?

Part 19

As the gang traveled along the weed infested dirt road they saw nothing but rolling hills of the dark green grass they had seen since their arrival. They were unsure if they were going the right way but they had little reason to think the other way was any better than their current course. None of them said anything as they journeyed without any way of telling time in this dark land. They had suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the witch and where now wandering without direction or clue what to do next. Finally after what felt like hours of walking they came upon a felled tree lying next to the road. This was strange to the teenagers because they had not seen a tree since they came here to the Realm of Darkness. Still they decided to take advantage of their fortune and sit down on the trunk to rest their feet.

The deep silence between them masked the level of tension they each felt from the others. They knew that this was the world of the Heartless and could be attacked by endless swarms of the dread creatures at any time. Yet since Maleficent sent them here they had not seen a single one. Maybe they were lying in wait ready to ambush them along the road. But Sora and Riku both knew better than that. With the exception of Xehanort and yes, Orin the Heartless were all virtually mindless. Attacking relentlessly en mass until their numbers were reduced to nothing or faced with an overwhelmingly powerful enemy. If the Heartless where around they would've attacked by now, maybe they lived somewhere else in this world.

Out of curiosity Sora looked around at the tree he and the others sat on. It wasn't very big, probably standing only about ten feet from the base of the trunk to the top. No leaves were on any of the untrimmed limbs and the sound when Sora knocked on it suggested that it was not just dead but was starting to rot from the inside out.

The long silence that had begun since they had begun walking was shattered when Yuffie spoke, unable to bear the quiet any longer. "So... what now?"

The group turned their attention towards the ninja girl, unsure what she meant exactly.

Yuffie meanwhile disliked all the curious looks and began to think she should of waited for someone else to speak up. "I mean Sora, you said you and Riku were here before. You have any info to share?"

Sora shook his head. "Nah, I was only at the dark beach after we defeated Xemnas. What about you Riku?"

Riku looked at the other Keyblader and gave him a single shake of his own head. "I'm sorry but the answer's no. Before Diz, I mean Ansem found me I was mostly fighting with Xehanort's Heartless. I don't remember much of the terrain of this place."

Yuffie sighed, well that was the end of this conversation unless she took in another direction. "You know what I really hate about this place? The sheer lack of... well everything. Listen."

The gang strained their ears to hear what Yuffie was talking about, with the exception of the wind that would occasionally pick up once in a while they could hear nothing.

"Um, Yuffie I don't hear anything." Sora said, stating the obvious so no one else would have to.

"That's just it. There aren't any sounds like in our world. No crickets, birds, heck I can barely hear the wind when it picks up. Heck I haven't seen anything in this world but grass, stars, rock and this tree. I expected to see armies of powerful Heartless and barren wastelands, not this quiet empty grassland."

Riku nodded. "Yeah, it's real strange. Hey Sora remember after we beat Xehanort's Heartless and got a glimpse at this world?"

Sora remembered well, that was back when he thought he'd never get to see his best friend ever again. "Yeah, it was full of Shadows and Darkside Heartless. Maybe this world has its good and bad sides just like any other world we've been too."

"Maybe, but we need to find our way back to the Realm of Light. There's no telling what kind of mayhem the old witch is causing now."

It was not long before the group got moving again down the road to where ever it lead.

---

Aeris sat on the bench behind Cid, watching him type away at his computer. It had been a slow day at her flower shop so she had closed early after watering and caring for all her plants. She sighed tiredly; sitting here bored with nothing to do was something she had not planned on doing all day. Leon was busy overseeing the restoration project so she had not seen him since she opened her shop that morning. She was sure that if Cid looked back at her kicking her feet lightly and leaning back on the bench she'd remind him of Yuffie. The thought did provoke a quick giggle from the peace loving flower girl.

Cid looked back at Aeris, his trademark toothpick adorning a gentle smirk. "Somethin on yer mind Aeris?"

Aeris looked at Cid then shook her head, smiling back at him with her usual warm smile. "No Cid, I'm just a little tired."

"No, if you were tired you'd go home and lay down." Cid said skeptically as he took the toothpick out of his mouth. "What you are is bored, Yuffie does the same thing you are when she is. And let me tell you the little twerp is bored a lot since all this reconstruction started."

Aeris giggled and nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Yuffie can be a handful."

Cid swiveled around in his chair to face the flower girl. "Now tell ol' Cid why yer wastin yer time in here and not at your shop? Wasn't Leon giving you any company?" He ended that last remark with a playful grin.

Aeris waved off his question with one of her fingers. Although that was exactly the case (although not quite how she would word it) she didn't want Cid Highwind to stick his nose into her business. "I closed up my shop because everyone's busy with rebuilding the town and it's not like I have anyone under my employment."

"Well there you go kid, hire somebody to work under ya." Cid suggested. "Heck get Yuffie to do it, I'd like to see her on someone else's back for a change."

Aeris put a hand to her chin as thought about that. Yuffie was always complaining about working with Leon and the others to restore the town. But would she be happier working for her in her flower shop? Aeris wasn't sure, she knew Yuffie often talked about wanting to going out with Cloud to the wastelands outside of town to hunt down the few Heartless that remained after Sora and Riku defeated Xemnas. Aeris didn't think that would happen as Cloud wouldn't even take Tifa out with him (unless she forced him when she could catch him). Odds are Yuffie would be bored in her shop but given the option between manual labor and working her store the flower girl knew Yuffie would quiet down about it.

"You know, I think I'll do that." Aeris said, clapping her hands together and turning to face Cid with a smile. "I think she'd be happier working for me than Leon."

Cid was glad to hear it because when Yuffie was bored the ninja would bother him and he couldn't get anything done. She would bug him with humming and drumming her fingers until he had to get Leon to give her something else to do. For some reason that girl seemed to want to get on his bad side. Cid was enjoying his day without her one way or another.

"So where's Tifa and ol' spike head?" Cid asked. "Still out hunting down Heartless?"

Aeris rolled her eyes and nodded. "Yeah, Leon's been complaining how those two are ducking out of helping restore the town."

Cid laughed. "I agree with him, I mean after that Orin kid left with Sora and the other kids things have been pretty quiet. I wouldn't be surprised if those two are just sitting out in the sun having picnics all day."

Aeris agreed and leaned back on the bench, but only then did she catch a glimpse of Cid's computer screen. Aeris didn't have even a fraction of Cid's computer knowledge so she thought she should point out what she saw. "Um, Cid what are all those red dots on your computer screen?"

Cid raised an eyebrow before swiveling around in his chair to see what Aeris was pointing out. To his horror the screen that had been clear since Organization Thirteen was defeated was now registering multiple incoming enemies. From this distance the readings were inconclusive as to what these intruders were but they numbered in the dozens and more were coming. Cid immediately leapt out of his chair. "Aeris I want you to stay here and keep an eye on things! I've got to tell Leon this!"

Before Aeris could ask what was going on Cid bolted out the door and off towards the reconstruction site leaving the flower girl with a puzzled expression on her face. Turning back to the computer she let out a silent prayer that this wasn't starting all over again.

---

The gang had been walking once more without knowledge of time in this 'Valley of Shadows' until they felt like they were about to go mad. The expectation of being ambushed by the Heartless was ever present yet they never heard a sound or saw anything out of place, just more grass and more dirt road. Although Yuffie was starting to complain about this the gang remained quiet, something about this world seemed to instill a melancholy feeling within them.

At last after much walking and listening to complaints and groans from the ninja Riku was about to turn and tell her off when Yuffie pointed to a spot off in the distance.

"Look guys! A town!" Yuffie exclaimed, voicing the entire group's thanks to see anything other than grass and hills.

To be continued...


	20. Unwelcome faces

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I DO own the OCs. If you'd like to use them in a fic, just tell me.

Am I Heartless?

Part 20

Maleficent smiled as she looked down from her tower at the army of Heartless she now controlled and were still pouring from the bowels of the castle. Although the witch was delighting in this sight Pete was nervous, this many Heartless was going to be very hard to control and they had no aid like they had long ago like Captain Hook, Clayton, Jafar, or even Ansem the Seeker of Darkness to help maintain control over the Heartless.

"Are you really sure you can control them all Maleficent?" Pete whimpered.

Before Pete could go on with his usual whining the witch answered him in a very agitated tone. "Of course I can, as long as the door between the worlds remains open I have power over all the Heartless on this side. Now be quiet or I will feed you to what you fear most you bloated toad."

Pete backed away from Maleficent's hard glare but he did shut his mouth and remained that way. He knew better than to continue to complain when she got this way. Still Pete knew this wasn't as bad as if could be, that blasted raven could be sitting on her shoulder and looking at him like he was dinner as it liked to do.

---

Upon reaching the town that they found that it was in the same condition as the road. The dark sea of grass had grown over ever every inch between the houses, leaving only the main road that wound on deeper into the valley. The houses were made of smooth black uneven bricks and tin roofs. At the back of each house had a single chimney made of the same bricks that made up the walls, solid wooden doors that were locked firmly, and each had a pair circular windows on each side of the doors. This gave each house the vague yet defiantly familiar appearance of a Heartless. After entering one of the houses thanks to Yuffie picking the lock they found that the home was rather Spartan in comparison to their homes back in the Destiny Islands and Radiant Garden. The house had only a bed with a hard mattress and black sheets, a crude dark wood table with a trio of chairs of similar make and craft, and in the corner was a small empty trunk. These houses seemed to have never been occupied by anyone since it was built. But that was odd on many levels, who would build a house and not plan to live in it?

"Who do you think built this town? The Heartless?" Sora asked, loosely directed at Riku.

Riku skeptically shook his head. "I don't think so. With the exception of Orin and Xehanort the Heartless have never showed any kind of intelligence. Perhaps there was once a race of people that lived here before the Heartless destroyed them."

"But if that's true why are these houses so neat and tidy? The floors are clean and the bed is made." Kairi pointed out, "It's more like who ever lived here just locked up and left on their own accord."

What Kairi pointed out earned a short silence as the group thought about that. If these people had fled the Heartless and were hiding someplace the house wouldn't be this tidy. Who would fold a bed when fleeing for your life when any sensible person would take the blankets to keep them warm on the road?

Riku looked out the window near the bed to look at the other houses. This town seemed to ring with an empty, almost lonely silence that permeated every feature of this town. Still this town was more hospitable than the Organization's castle in the Land that never was.

"Hey guys, you have anything to drink? I'm pretty thirsty?" Kairi asked politely, idlely rubbing her dry throat with one hand.

"I saw a well not far from here, but I don't know how good the water is for us." Riku said, pointing out the window in the direction of the well. "But if you want water we should go with you just in case."

The gang exited the house and walked towards the well, which was made of the same kind of large black stones as the houses stacked in a circle with a small wooden bucket attached to a long rope which was tied and secured around a large black gray boulder that sat next to the well.

Kairi took the bucket and slowly lowered it down into the depths until she ran out of rope then pulled it back up making sure to do it so it didn't bump against the walls and spill. Upon getting it up onto the edge Kairi discovered that she had pulled up nothing but the rope and the bucket.

"What's the deal? I thought all towns had working wells." Yuffie complained upon seeing the empty bucket.

"I guess this well went dry some time ago." Sora said, tossing a rock down into the depths of the well to test if it was truly dry. To the surprise as the sounds of the stone knocking against the rock walls of the well until it reached the bottom. But instead of the sound of rock hitting rock was a loud THWACK of hitting something living. There was a brief growl of irritation before the gang above around the well found themselves enveloped in darkness then standing in what they thought was the bottom of a deep hole. However they quickly recognized the roughly rocks that lined the walls as the walls of the well they had just been standing around.

"Well, isn't this a surprise. This is the last place I expected to run into you again." Said a deep and yet oddly familiar voice from behind them.

Turning each member of the group got into a combative stance, each of them let out in unison; "Xehanort!?"

Indeed it was the Seeker of Darkness, or at least what was left of him. From the waist down there was nothing left, his right arm was missing it's hand and his left arm was missing completely. His face and torso had missing portions that resembled large cuts, no doubt made by a Keyblade. The injuries on his body seeped small plumes of black mist that made the gang feel a little nauseous. With great difficulty the Heartless of Ansem's old assistant looked up at them with his one remaining eye.

"Ah... Riku, I see you're looking well." He rasped, coughing out black mist as he spoke. "I suppose you've come to finish me off. I must say I'm touched."

Riku instantly summoned Way to the Dawn and pointed it in Xehanort's face, or what was left of it. Xehanort's only response was to smirk at Riku as if nothing he could do could hurt him further.

Yuffie fumed, here laying propped up against the wall was what remained of the man who had taken away her home and nearly decimated it with the power of the Heartless.

"Xemnas, my Nobody trapped me here in this well after you forced me out of your body Riku. This was all that was left of me I'm afraid. Xemnas was using me as a source of information about the Hearts in exchange for healing me. As you can see he has honored that agreement very little. Tell me, did you destroy him?"

"Yes we did." Sora said proudly.

Xehanort snorted, smirking at the idea that these kids had defeated the head of that pitiful Organization. "Well I had hoped to do that myself when I had regained my strength, but it seems like I won't be able to do either."

"Okay, why are these houses here? Who built them?" Kairi asked, wanting to get right to business and not have to look upon his unwelcome face again.

"I made them long ago just in case my experiments were to succeed. Sadly only one of them barely came close to my expectations. That was before I discovered something about the transformation from human into a Heartless. Apparently something I did not foresee was that all my research and experimenting was a complete waste of time because people who willingly remove their hearts keep their sentience upon becoming a Heartless. Imagine my shock then I discovered that I had been going through all that for no reason. Comical isn't it? For all my worrying I got what I wanted in the end either way." As Xehanort ended in a string of loud string of coughs, creating a trail of wisping clouds that stretched upward like smoke from a cigar.

Riku drew the Way to the Dawn back so he could aim for a more deadly strike. This only resulted in making the Seeker of Darkness laugh.

"I cannot blame you for wanting to destroy me Riku and I surely cannot stop you in this state." Xehanort's face remained stoic as he stared straight at Riku. "I am truly at your mercy but if you want to know anything about what Maleficent is up to you would be making a grave mistake."

Riku gritted his teeth and lowered his Keyblade, his glare sharpening as Xehanort's smile grew. Even in this state the Seeker of Darkness could still pull people's strings. Kairi stomped past Riku and stood glaring down at the seriously injured Heartless with a look that would make any normal human back off and take her seriously. However Xehanort was not human anymore.

"Ah Kairi, nice to see you again. I see you've matured since I saw you last." Xehanort mused, completely immune to the death glare the young woman was directing at her. "Tell me, how has Sora been treating you? He had quite the thing for you if I recall correctly."

Kairi was rendered completely dumbfounded by that statement and looked back at her spiky haired friend who was blushing slightly and adverting his gaze from her. She turned to say something in retort to Xehanort but the words would not come to her. Clearly Xehanort had not lost any of his sharp wit laying here at the bottom of this well.

"Oh yes him." Xehanort said in an uninterested tone, as if remembering a minor detail of what happened last week. "He's not a very good imitation isn't he? You know I gave him memories of having feelings for you just to round out his mind so he would not end up like all the others."

Yuffie stammered, now able to understand why the antennaed boy he wanted to be around her as much as possible but was always so shy around her. Suddenly Yuffie felt a sore spot begin to develop in her chest as her mind drifted back to what happened when she kissed him. Yuffie turned and walked behind Kairi so she could get her head together without being seen. While time had figuratively stopped for the ninja girl as she sorted things out it did not for the others.

"Others?" Sora went on to ask another obvious question.

Xehanort nodded. "Oh yes, I made many others before 'Orin' as you call him. All failures that amounted to nothing I'm afraid. But let's get back to business, you want to know what the witch is up to correct?"

Riku and Sora looked at each other, they knew there was more than what Xehanort was saying but they knew that this information was much more urgent. Besides by defeating Maleficent they probably would be saving Orin in the process.

"Alright spill it, what's she up to?" Sora demanded.

Xehanort sighed seemingly very weary of these children. "Sadly her plan lacks any true form of originality but it is effective none the less. Maleficent has used my own creation to wedge open the door between the Realms of Light and Darkness. She has gained the power to command the Heartless just I once had and is much stronger than when I first encountered her."

"and with the door open..." Kairi quietly mentioned, fearing that she already knew what was going to happen

"I see that you are not as witless as you appear child." Xehanort quipped, loving being able to irk these children once more in his existence. "She has an almost endless army is at her command to recreate the End of the World and eventually Kingdom Hearts."

That got their attention, no one was truly sure how strong was.

"I've been losing more and more of my strength everyday here in this world. Soon I'll fade away like a dream at sunrise." Xehanort spoke as if his passing would be mourned by the entire general populous.

"More like a nightmare..." Sora muttered.

"But what about Orin, what's he got to do with her plan?" Kairi asked.

"She must have needed someone to open the gate to this world for her. I made sure only a Heartless could unlock the door I discovered to this valley. But I have to warn you, Maleficent's power has grown so powerful that she can now bend any Heartless to her will. If she were to discover me she could even force me to do her bidding." Xehanort snorted, loathing the idea that Maleficent could use him as she saw fit. He would rather fade away than allow her to debase him like that. "That imperfect specimen of mine may not be anything like you know anymore."

"Then we have to go back." Yuffie said sternly, looking at her friends. "Maleficent could be attacking the town right now."

"I can send you back to the Realm of Light. Before you object Riku I know that you do not trust that I would ever do you a favor, however I know that if Maleficent were to succeed in creating and controlling Kingdom Hearts she will have succeeded where I failed. I want you to make sure she does not live to do that." Xehanort was speaking the truth, as much as it pained him to aid those who defeated him he knew this was the best option he had.

Riku gritted his teeth and agreed reluctantly to allow the antagonist to send them back. That was if he could, chances are he'd warp them right into a pit of Heartless to have their hearts ripped from their bodies. Still with that possibility the rest of the group agreed as well. With a look of strain on what was left of Xehanort's face he enveloped them in a corridor of darkness, sending them away. Leaving Xehanort alone in the dark with a smug grin on his face, perhaps this day wouldn't be as bad as the thought it would be.

To be continued...

A/N: Few things; I didn't get anyone to proofread this one so hope it's okay, I discovered that in Mortal Kombat Armageddon they have a minor character named Orin (surprised the heck out of me) and lastly, reveiws plz... please...?


	21. Again with the invasion

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I DO own the OCs. If you'd like to use them in a fic, just tell me.

Am I Heartless?

Part 21

As the gang's vision returned they saw that they were standing in the midst of a pitched battle in the middle of the reconstruction site between two residents of Radiant Garden and two dozen Heartless. These were not the normal kind of Heartless like Shadows and Soldiers. These were reminders from Sora's past, powerful Heartless called Angel stars and Invisibles.

The main body of an Angel Star resembles a clear glass lantern with the Heartless emblem stamped on it while four peach colored angelic wings keep it aloft. Three yellow eyes are above the main body on a pointed head and below the body is a purple spike with two yellow rings spinning around the center of this spike. From what Jiminy had written in his journal it was said these Heartless were born from Holy magic, however Sora had never been able to figure out how that would could happen. Perhaps it was explained more in Xehanort's journal.

Invisibles resembled classic demons in the major sense: They are entirely black, they have large horns that stretch above their heads that form the shape of a heart between them, a tail ending in a blade that they use to attack with, small bat like wings on their backs and smaller feathered ones near their elbows. Their eyes are not uncommon for any Heartless, they are the usual yellow but they are narrowed so they look at you with a constant glare. But the first thing you notice when you see one is the large serrated broadsword they always carry into battle.

These powerful Heartless were swarming around Cloud who was doing his best to swat away the stealthy attacks of the Invisibles who would disappear and reappear at random trying to flank Cloud while Tifa trying her best to dodge the powerful spells the Angel Star's magical blasts and their close range strikes with their wings.

The gang didn't even think about the numbers as they leapt into the fray, Keyblades and shuriken in hand. Sora and Riku went to aid Cloud in fighting the Invisibles and Yuffie and Kairi to help Tifa. Riku leapt into the air to counter a swing of the Heartless's sword and cleave it in two with his Way to the Dawn. Sora was having his hands full dealing with two of these powerful Heartless at once. Just as he could counter one strike from the Invisibles' broadsword he had to counter the other's, then counter the first again, and repeat. Finally tired of this game Sora focused his will into his Keyblade and flames grew and burned from the weapon. These embers exploded and circled Sora, setting alight the Heartless as they tried to put themselves out and allowing Sora to slay them both.

Yuffie was doing far more damage than Kairi who was doing her best but was still not used to fighting such powerful foes. Tifa was grateful that she no longer had to avoid blasts of magic and could now use her fists to hit these weird creatures. Kairi was awed by how quickly both Yuffie and Tifa struck the Heartless. Obviously these two had seen more battles than Riku and Sora combined. Maybe they could give her a few pointers later.

Cloud, having earned a short breather thanks to Riku and Sora hefted his Buster Sword and began to swing at the Heartless that now surrounded him, Riku, and Sora. As Cloud attacked he began to glow with a gold light, in a flash Cloud was flying around the battlefield at lightning speed and each Heartless he passed fell from a powerful stroke of his sword. In a few seconds all the Heartless were slain and Cloud leaned on his sword to brace himself as he tried to catch his breath.

Tifa walked over to ensure that her childhood friend was alright but he hurriedly assured her that he was fine. As the 'children' ran up to him they asked the same question to both of them Tifa gave them the same answer that Cloud had given her.

"Where did these Heartless come from?" Tifa asked the group of teenagers, "We were just enjoying a picnic when all the sudden Cid calls us about Heartless attacking the town, then we have these things buzzing all around us."

"Maleficent opened a door to the Realm of Darkness and she's got control over all the Heartless." Kairi said, conveniently leaving out the part about Xehanort being alive. She didn't think they needed to know that... at least not yet anyway.

"Great..." Tifa groaned, "If it's not Sephiroth or Shin Ra it's the Heartless."

"Shin who?" Kairi asked curiously, not understanding what the older woman was talking about.

"Not important." Yuffie said, not wanting to go into detail about the corporation or anything that had happened during her adventures with Cid, Cloud, Tifa, and all the others.

"Isn't the security system working?" Sora asked.

"Yeah but it's swamped." Tifa went on. "There are just too many Heartless coming into the city at once for it to be effective and these Heartless are just too strong to be taken down by a couple hits from the claymores. Leon and the others are taking care of things as well they can but with this many strong Heartless... You guys go on into town and we'll do our best here."

"But you two were just now over run by those things." Riku said, voicing his concern for Tifa and Cloud's well being. "Aren't you just going to be swarmed like you were?"

"They caught us off guard." Cloud said, finally joining the conversation after all this time. "It won't happen again."

Yuffie groaned at Cloud's statement, he always had to be the hero... "Always a pain in the ass..."

With a tired sigh the ninja girl turned away and started towards town. "Come on guys... Cloud's too pig headed to come with us so let's just go."

The gang gave both the Ex-SOLDIER and AVALANCHE member a quick good bye and good luck before racing off towards town.

Tifa frowned at Yuffie's words. "All this time hanging out with Sora and his friends and she's still the hot headed little girl who tried to mug us in the forest near Fort Condor..."

"I don't think so." Cloud said, hefting his Buster sword on his shoulder and began walking back towards his bike. "She's grown up a little I think."

Tifa looked at her childhood friend with a confused look. She knew that Sora and Kairi had grown based on stories Cid and Leon told her but upon coming here to Radiant garden and seeing the ninja girl again she had encountered the same girl from their adventures. From what she could tell Yuffie was now a year older and perhaps a little more cheerful than before but otherwise she was unchanged. Tifa was half convinced that if she had had any materia with her that Yuffie would have stolen them once Tifa turned her back.

"Whatever you say Cloud..." Tifa said in an unconvinced tone, following him with her hands behind her head.

---

As the gang entered the town through the Bailey they saw the town once again in ruins. They could legions of Shadows climbing like spiders along the walls and many flying Heartless like Dark balls flew above the town like angry zeppelins, these Dark balls large black balls with wide mouths and two whip like tendrils on top of their bodies as well as one below them. They liked to play a cruel game of hide and seek by disappearing and biting when they reappear behind you.

Leon and Cid could be seen off in the distance in the streets doing battle with Gun blade and spear against a group of Heartless. Thankfully this group was a good deal smaller than the one that attacked Cloud and Tifa out in the outskirts of town. They were fighting well and every so often the gang could see a cloud of black mist puff up as a Heartless was slain.

Before Sora could go to help his friends he was tackled by a surprisingly strong Heartless, it was about his size and had... hair? Instinctively kicking the Heartless away he was able to get a better look at it, it resembled a Shadow in many ways. It had antennas, round glowing yellow eyes, sharp claws, and red lines on what seemed to be the silhouette of clothes.

"I see you have noticed your friend's improvements." Maleficent said, appearing in her usual fashion on the top of a nearby house to watch the entertainment.

"What did you do to him?" Sora demanded up at the witch, pointing his Keyblade at her.

"I did nothing." Maleficent mused, flailing innocence and a hint of false concern. "This is how he has appeared ever since the door to Realm of Darkness was opened. It seems all that power corrupted the poor dear's original design."

"I don't believe you!" Sora retorted, giving his Keyblade a swing just to let the witch know he meant business.

"Oh really?" Maleficent replied, a confidant smile on her pale green face. "Orin, dear would you show them that I am indeed telling the truth."

Orin complied wordlessly and leapt at his friends with his claws extended and ready to strike. However the very sight of Sora's Keyblade made Orin cringe and slink back to a safe distance. The gang looked at the Heartless boy, he really did look and act like a Heartless now.

Sora was at a loss for words, he honestly had no idea what to do in this situation. If he fought Orin he'd end up destroying the Heartless. There was no telling how powerful of a Heartless he was because, this was a factor because if Orin was truly as powerful as a Shadow then only one swing of his Keyblade could end up destroying him.

"Come on Orin, you know us." Sora said, holding his Keyblade behind him in a non threatening manner.

Orin shook his head, these people seemed familiar but he couldn't remember who they were or how they knew him. Confused Orin looked at each of them, he could hear the hearts beating within them. He wanted to take each of their hearts but there was something in the back of his mind that kept him from doing so and it pained him greatly. But there was one in the group that seemed important in some way, the one not holding one of those scary key weapons.

"Yuuufiieee..." Orin strained to say as he backed away in very jerky steps toward the group.

"It appears you need more power Orin my boy. Here..." Maleficent raised her staff and focused the power of Darkness that she had received from the other side of the door.

Orin's body thrashed in a series of erratic twists as the power of darkness flowed into him. His glowing eyes narrowed to a feral, almost hungry glare that sent chills into his former friend's hearts. His antennas grew larger until they reached his knees then snapped back over his head and hang behind him like a Neo Shadow's own jester like extensions on the back of their heads, only Orin's were stretching from his forehead. Orin's body became more thin and lithe, and his claws on his hands grew to the size of two inches. When it was over and Maleficent finished pouring energy into Orin he looked more Heartless than Human. But it was possible this was his true form and not the human facade his friends had known. Real or not that part of him was now shed and cast aside.

Before Sora could bring his Keyblade up Orin had swatted it out of his hands, sliding too far for him to reach before Orin could attack. Or that's how it would've happened if Riku hadn't stepped between them and hit Orin in the face with the flat side of his Keyblade. Orin was knocked away by the blow, spinning as he hit the hard ground.

Yuffie stepped up and aimed her shuriken at Orin, the ninja girl looked sternly back at Riku and Sora; "You guys get Maleficent, Me and Kairi can handle Orin."

Sora didn't like that plan, Orin was no normal Heartless and would be too much for a novice fighter like Kairi. "But-"

"No arguing Sora." Yuffie snapped, interrupting her brown haired friend. "The faster you and Riku take down Maleficent the faster this is all over. Now go!"

Sora was about to offer a counter argument when Riku grabbed him by the collar and dragged him into a run in the direction of the old witch.

"Riku? What-" Sora began, only to be interrupted again. In the back of his mind Sora wanted to scream but knew if he did he wouldn't hear the explanation and under these situations having to explain something twice could be disastrous.

"Don't argue, just help me out nest head." Riku said as he raced on towards the witch who was still watching the battle with mild interest.

"Great you're calling me that now too." Sora whined before following his friend into battle against the more powerful Heartless that swarmed out from the shadows surrounding Maleficent.

---

Kairi leapt on Orin's back and thrust the shaft of the Keyblade under his neck to use as a brace to choke Orin and with any luck get him off Yuffie. There was the soft sizzle like bacon frying as the Summer days Keyblade touched Orin's skin. Orin let out a inhuman yelp of pain as he bucked and shook in an attempt to

As Orin pinned Yuffie down to the ground a flashback of what happened when she kissed Orin appeared in the ninja girl's mind a moment before she felt something cold invade her chest.

To be continued...


	22. Boiling point

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I DO own the OCs. If you'd like to use them in a fic, just tell me.

Am I Heartless?

Part 22

Maleficent smiled at the play unfolding below her, every character that made a story worth reading were there. She saw Riku and Sora as she avenging coming to slay the wicked villain, Kairi as the novice fighter who can do little more at this the climax of the story than offer support. Orin now played the part of the fallen hero, turning on his friends under the sway of the villain's power. And lastly the Heartless that were now descending on Riku and Sora were the demonic hordes called forth by her, the evil villain to destroy the avenging heroes while she watched. Truly this was a scene straight from a fairy tale, one Maleficent was certain would end well... for her. After all this was reality, not some child's storybook. Reality favors the powerful and she was indeed powerful. She planned on enjoying this scene for as long as it would continue, good entertainment is so hard to find these days.

---

Sora and Riku were going their best to plow through the seemingly endless number of Heartless on their way up onto the rooftops so they could reach the witch standing on the top of the large house watching them. The Heartless were not as powerful as they were when they encountered them in the outskirts of the city. These were Dark balls and Neo shadows mostly. Perhaps Maleficent had no more of them, or maybe not many had survived the destruction of the End of the World.

---

Yuffie meanwhile was gasping for air as she tried to pulled Orin's hand out of her chest, his cold arm was firmly planted in her chest as she felt it searching for her heart. Fear was mounting in the ninja girl's heart, once he found her heart and took it she'd be a mindless Heartless like him!

Kairi looked in horror at Orin as she saw his clawed hand in Yuffie's chest. Getting to her feet as fast as she could she rushed back at Orin, the Summer Days Keyblade in hand and ready to strike. Her noble heart however would not allow her to strike this Heartless down and the Keyblade only nicked Orin's new headgear, however that one cut seemed to be enough to get Orin's attention away from Yuffie. Orin removed his clawed hand from Yuffie's chest, leaving not even a mark on her where his hand had been.

Orin got up and leapt at Kairi, ready to take her heart then go back for Yuffie. Orin could feel her heart beating like thunder from where she stood, something that enticed the corrupted Heartless child to no end.

With a cry of panic Kairi held her Keyblade up in front of her like a shield and closed her eyes. If not for her Keyblade Orin would have no doubt have ended this right then and there, however the Keyblades are funny that way. While Kairi had her eyes closed she had made a cry for help, a prayer if you will with her heart. A prayer her Keyblade heard and wanted to make true. With a flash of light the weapon knocked Orin back into a brick wall on the other side of the street, knocking him out cold.

Kairi opened her eyes upon hearing Orin collide with the wall. Keeping an eye on Orin's limp form Kairi moved over to Yuffie's side and shook her lightly. Yuffie opened her eyes and sat up clutching her chest and shivering a little.

"Are you okay Yuffie?" Kairi asked, fighting to hold back tears of concern that had been welling up behind her eyes.

"Yeah, I jest feel really cold... Just like last time..." Yuffie coughed out, holding her sides as she struggled to get up. Her insides felt like they were frozen, every inch of her flesh from her neck to her stomach felt like icy pins and needles were being stuck in her by some insane witch doctor or worse yet, a licensed doctor of acupuncture.

"You sure he didn't um... dislodge anything?" Kairi asked, still concerned about the welfare of her friend. She worried that if Orin had indeed gotten hold of her heart and moved it out of place that Yuffie could still be in some sort of danger.

Yuffie shook her head and managed a laugh as she stood using her over sized shuriken as a crutch. Lucky thing too, as she stood a Neo Shadow rose up in front of Kairi and was about to attack the red head when Yuffie sliced it in twine by dropping her shuriken's point on the Heartless.

Suddenly the skies darkened as three enormous forms blocked out the rays of the sun. The Keybladers and the residents looked up to see that three Darkside Heartless had descended on the town.

---

Meanwhile far away across the void the situation at Disney Castle things had quieted down. Things were calming down, the guards had only begun to breathe easily when a familiar face walked up behind Goofy.

"So how are things Captain?"

Goofy spun around to see who it was, nearly falling over King Mickey in the process. Once he saw the king he instantly snapped to attention, hitting himself in the head with his shield. Taking a step backwards to rub his aching forehead Goofy saluted again, his time making sure he didn't bean himself in the head with his own weapon.

King Mickey could barely keep his laughter subdued, his old friend could always bring the light of laughter to his face even when darkness surrounded them.

"Well yor majesty, all those Heartless that were around the castle are gone. Even those huge Darksides are gone."

"Where'd they go?" The smaller monarch asked, looking out at the land that was laden with large footsteps of the Darksides.

"I dunno," Goofy began, "they just kinda disappeared. You know how those Heartless are, one second they're not here the next they are... Uh... I mean one second they're not here then-"

King Mickey laughed again. "I get it Goofy, they just disappeared... But where'd they go?"

"I dunno yor Majesty, but things seem to be calming down." Goofy said.

"Seems like it. But keep an eye out just in case." The small monarch said as he walked off, wishing he was as confidant as he sounded. What in the world was going on?

To be continued...

A/N: Short I know but I wanted to update before Christmas.

Phantom64- Snap, thanks for reminding me of that, it completely slipped my mind.


	23. Duel with a Dragon

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I DO own the OCs. If you'd like to use them in a fic, just tell me.

Am I Heartless?

Part 23

Sora and Riku looked up, they were only a few dozen yards from facing down the old witch for what they hoped was the last time. That was until a familiar face landed in front of them from out of nowhere.

"Thought I wasn't comin' huh?" Pete bolstered proudly, his hands on his hips. "I ain't lettin' you pass no matter what."

Pete's response was met by a belt to the head thanks to the hard metal pommel of Riku's Way to the Dawn. A loud and comical 'bonk' could be heard by both Riku and Sora.

"Mommy? Is that you?" Pete twittered before falling to the ground and passing out with a goofy, broken tooth grin on his face.

Riku gave a momentary shake of his head. It was hard to believe that the old witch would entrust anything to this fat blubbering buffoon. The white haired boy looked over at Sora, communicated to Sora on an almost mental basis that he was ready to continue on. Sora replied with a nod, understanding what Riku had said and voicing his affirmative wordlessly.

Maleficent's scaly form soared over their heads as she circled around the town to prepare for her attack. Riku and Sora both could do little as she came closer, her large tooth filled maw seething with green flames. With one quick movement of her head she let loose a ball of emerald fire directed at the two young men. Sora and Riku both leapt down from the building they stood on to the roof of a shorter nearby building.

Maleficent's fireball exploded upon impact, sending cinders and wisps of green smoke from what remained of the roof above them. The two young Keybladers were a little stricken at the power the old witch commanded in this form. Sora was surprised that he had beaten her the first time, then again when he had fought Maleficent's dragon form she had not had the advantage of the free skies to launch attacks. Sora and Riku both had no long range attacks that

Maleficent had now turned and was about to give her two old enemies another volley of fire when she suddenly wrenched in pain, sending her fire upwards into the sky like fireworks. Sora and Riku could see a spear lodged in her neck as she thrashed and plummeted to the ground.

"Where'd that come from?" Sora wondered aloud.

"Quit wastin time you kids!" Cid yelled from down on the ground, successfully grabbing Sora and Riku's attention. "Hurry up and finish her off, mah spear ain't gonna keep her down for long!"

The two nodded and ran as fast as they could towards the downed black dragon thrashing about on her back causing more damage to the town. Sora and Riku leapt off the final roof and landed on the monster's armored belly. As soon as they landed Maleficent the beast began to thrash more wildly, trying to reach up to her serpent like neck with her claws to pry the blade out of her neck. Sora and Riku wasted no time and raced up as fast as they could, nearly tripping under the jerks, twists, and the heat of the fires Maleficent was breathing in her attempts to dislodge the weapon Cid had used to wound her. Riku noticed that as Maleficent was breathing fire there were flickers of green from the wound in her neck.

Riku turned to his friend with a serious look on his face. "Sora, follow my lead and try to hit as hard you can with your Keyblade."

---

Yuffie walked over to Orin, her knuckles white as she clenched onto her shuriken tightly for protection. Just in case Orin wasn't back to his old self yet. Yuffie wanted to help him up, or at least turn him over onto his back from his limp position on his side. But she knew if she did that his eyes might snap open and he might attack her again.

"Kairi?" Yuffie said, not taking her eyes off the unconscious Heartless boy just in case he would suddenly open his eyes and spring to his feet.

"Yes Yuffie?" Kairi asked, curious about the seriousness of her voice. She didn't know Yuffie as well as Sora but he had told her that Yuffie was normally hyperactive and mischievous to an uncomfortable extreme. But what Kairi was seeing was someone more well rounded than that.

"Do you think I'm foolish?" Yuffie said with an uncharacteristically downbeat tone. She sounded almost like she was about to loose it right then and there.

Kairi was more than a little confused by the ninja girl's words. "No of course not Yuffie. Why would you think something like that?"

"It's just, anyone else would think it's stupid to want to stay friends with someone who's nearly killed you twice..." Yuffie said, closing her eyes and touching her forehead to the flat side of her oversized shuriken. "Especially if that person's a Heartless."

Kairi placed a reassuring hand on Yuffie's shoulder. "Heartless or not, I don't think it's foolish to care about a friend. Did Sora ever tell you he was turned into a Heartless for a while?"

Yuffie blinked and looked back at the red head with an interested glance, Sora had never told her about that part of his adventures.

"He was nothing like Orin or Ansem..." Kairi said, remembering back to her first adventure with Sora. "Sora just looked like one of those Shadow Heartless."

Yuffie was surprised by this, first by Sora being a Heartless and second for being turned into such a weak Heartless considering how strong he was. "How'd he get turned into a Heartless?" Yuffie asked.

"At the time my Heart was trapped within his body by some... unusual circumstances." Kairi explained, "Sora used a Keyblade that unlocks hearts on himself, it took my heart out of his body but it also took his too."

The ninja girl stood and faced Kairi, showing full fascination with her story. "So that's how he was turned into a Heartless?"

"Yes," Kairi said, "I'm not sure how but I knew that Sora was the Heartless I saw and he changed back when I gave him a hug."

Yuffie nodded, letting her friend knew she understood, but still one thing bothered her. "But what does this have to do with me? If I were to give Orin a hug he'd turn back to what he was?"

Kairi smiled and shook her head. "I don't think so. I think that was a one time only thing."

"So I'm not foolish for liking Orin?" Yuffie inquired, sounding much more like her old self.

The ninja girl received another shake of Kairi's head.

"Well what about you and Sora?" Yuffie gave Kairi an evil smirk. "Or do you like Riku better?"

Kairi coughed, her face turning red from the ninja girl's very forward question. Kairi didn't want to think about THAT right now... Granted she liked both of them very much and they had both meant a lot to her. Kairi had known both of them all her life and what Yuffie had asked was very tough for her to answer right now.

---

Riku and Sora both ran as fast as they could towards the injury in the witch-dragon's neck. Dodging balls of fire and the creature's sharp claws both young men readied their weapons to strike. Maleficent began to thrash harder in an attempt to grasp the spear and pull it out so she could return to the safety of the skies, she needed that advantage in this fight.

Sora arrived first, driving his Keyblade deep into the wound and let loose with all the offensive magic he could force through his weapon. Riku went the other end of the spectrum, slashing and thrusting his Way to the Dawn into the wound to make it larger and deeper. The wound spurted dark fluids that resembled blood, staining their clothes with tiny speckles of black. Maleficent roared as she finally dug the spear out of the wound and thrashed around, trying to get back on her feet. Sora and Riku intensified their attacks on the wound as much as they could, the longer this fight dragged on the most damage she would cause. The dragon finally lifted herself off the ground, a slight dripping of her blood hitting the buildings she flew over like a light rain. Maleficent circled around to attack the children that had attacked her and inhaled to get ready for a big ball of fire. The fire that erupted from her mouth was almost nothing, most of the fire had sprung from the wound her neck opening up the wound even further than it was before. The pain was so great that the dragon fell from the skies like a stone into the town's center.

Maleficent's draconic form dissipated into mist, revealing the beaten form of the old witch standing holding one hand to her neck. She was battered and singed from her own flames but even then still held some semblance of nobility about her.

"It's over Maleficent. You're done." Riku spat, readying his Way ot the Dawn for a final strike. After all this Riku was secretly impressed that the old hag could even stand after so many blows. Then again magic was a force that was a difficult force to oppose and Maleficent was well versed in it.

"I may be defeated... but I swear you have not seen the last of me..." With that the witch collapsed, becoming nothing but an empty set of clothes and a few wisps of smoke as he collided with the ground.

Riku walked up to the empty robe and poked at it with the end of his Keyblade before lifting it with the teeth of the blade to make sure it was truly empty. Riku snorted and let the empty cloth drop to the ground before drawing upon the power of his Way to the Dawn and set the robe on fire. Riku hoped that the destruction of these rags would signify the end of the old witch's revivals.

To be continued...

A/N: YAY! Over 5000 hits!


	24. Dealing with Goodbyes

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I DO own the OCs. If you'd like to use them in a fic, just tell me.

Am I Heartless?

Part 24

Sora and Riku ran over to find Kairi and Yuffie both alive and well over the shadowy body of Orin. Both young men were glad to see that their friends were both unharmed and did not have to slay Orin before Maleficent's defeat. Maybe now things would finally quiet down now that Maleficent was (hopefully) gone for good.

The adults rushed up to the kids, who had come at the appearance of a massive black door bearing the Heartless insignia that had suddenly appeared right behind the Keybladers. The Heartless that remained were converging on the door, forcing it open and disappearing into a world of shadows and glowing yellow eyes.

The Islanders and Yuffie looked on as the shadows that surrounded Orin began to fade away revealing what had happened to the person they knew underneath. Orin's human form no longer looked the same as it did when they first met. His antennas had shrunk back to their original size but no longer wiggled erratically but instead hung lifelessly from his forehead. His once pale skin was now a dull grey and his yellow eyes now glowed like a true Heartless yet they held a shimmer of sadness within them. At first it was hard to see but as they walked towards him they could see the line of tears that were coming from the glowing orbs his eyes had become. When Yuffie stepped up to him he slinked back, unable to look at her.

"I can understand them now Sora." Orin said, sounding almost serene as he stared into the door. "At first they were sent by Xehanort... Ansem... or whatever he likes to call himself to be his lifeline to this world. So I could gather hearts to feed him and nurture him back to health so he could one day return to rain disappear on your worlds once more."

Sora took a step forward, his hand in front of him in a caring gesture. "This is your world too Orin, you grew up here and-"

"No it isn't Sora." Orin interrupted, a new flow of tears streaked his face. "As much as I wish this could my world be it can't. No matter how many memories that I have of his place I know that their all fake and I have to accept that. I can't stay here."

"Well... then let's take you back to Destiny Islands." Kairi said, hopeful that her suggestion would make Orin stay with them. "We could let you stay on the island where we met you."

"I can't..." Orin cried, looking down at the new color of his hands with a margin of disgust. "It's not fair that I stay here, knowing that no matter how much I care for any of you I can't even touch you."

Orin walked over to Yuffie with a very guilty look on his face, like he was about to completely break down in front of her. Yuffie was having a hard time looking at the Heartless boy, after being attacked by him on two separate occasions. Both of them were clearly uncomfortable being near each other to Sora and the others but they obviously wanted to say something very difficult to the other.

"Listen Yuffie..." Orin began, only to be cut off.

"If you're going to apologize, I know it wasn't really you." Yuffie said. "If I hadn't, you know... things might've turned out different. Maybe you wouldn't have run off and all this had happened. it's all my fa-"

Yuffie was silenced by the last thing she expected from the Heartless boy. The next thing she knew she was face to face with him, she could feel his twitching antennas touching her face as she felt his lips touch hers. The kiss left her stunned her but she enjoyed it, however was only a matter of seconds before Orin started to shake with convulsions. Orin quickly backed off from the stunned ninja girl, if he had continued he no doubt would have Yuffie on the ground and have his claws in her chest again. That was the last thing Orin wanted to do before leaving his friends. He had to bid them farewell.

"Maybe someday I'll come back... Good bye everyone." With that said Orin fell backwards into the darkness of the door, disappearing into the abyss before the door closed on it's own accord and vanished into thin air.

To the adults the disappearance of the door and the Heartless was a relieving sight and the welcomed the peace that they would enjoy would hopefully be a very long one. The Keybladers however were sad to see their friend go and worried how Yuffie was going to take this.

---

Three months later the town had nearly been restored to what it was before Xehanort had turned it into Hallow Bastion. The damage that The Heartless had caused three months prior was not as major as previously thought and was repaired within weeks. The area where Maleficent had crashed in her dragon form and the fires she caused however would still take much longer to repair.

Sora, Kairi, and Riku had all returned to Destiny Islands and enjoying what they hoped was a long vacation from Keyblades and Heartless and all that jazz. Sora and Kairi are both well and dating now, Riku was a little jealous at first but that ended when Riku started seeing Selphie. They had parted ways with Yuffie just after the Heartless were sent back to the Realm of Darkness with Orin and they promised to keep in contact with everyone.

Pete had awoken a day later after Maleficent's defeat and was in a dirty cell in Disney castle thanks to a call to King Mickey.

As soon as the islanders left however Leon and Aerith both noticed a drastic change in Yuffie's personality. The once always energetic and optimistic ninja girl became moody, lethargic, and spent most of her time alone in her room at the inn.

"Have you noticed how the squirt's been acting lately?" Cid asked one day, pointing over the skulking ninja girl who was laying face down on Merlin's couch.

Aerith jabbed Cid in the shoulder, causing the old engineer and airship captain to flinch. The flower girl was much tougher than Cid previously thought. "What I say?"

Aerith moved in close just in case Yuffie could hear them from where she was laying. The flower girl did not look very happy... "She may not admit it but she really liked Orin and she misses him, and if you knew anything about women you'd know that she's grieving right now."

Cid shot back at the flower girl with a hard stare of his own. One practiced for years from dealing with his assistants when he once worked with Shera in his home of Rocket Town. "So what now? We just let 'er stew like this?"

Aerith opened her mouth in retort but found that she had nothing to suggest. This was a very strange concept, having feelings for a person that was in every way was not supposed to have feelings. Yet through twisted experiments Orin had acquired emotions and even feelings for Yuffie through memories even though they were false. Aerith looked over at Yuffie, it reminded her of Tifa when Cloud and them first set out on their own adventure. But this was a few grades higher on the sadness scale in her opinion.

Suddenly, as if she had heard everything they had whispered to each other Yuffie stood up from the couch and walked out the door.

"You think she heard us?" Cid asked, once he checked the door and was sure that Yuffie wasn't litening right outside.

Aerith bit her lip. "I don't know. It will take some time but she'll feel better eventually. Just watch what you say to her for a while okay?"

Cid nodded in agreement, Aerith was a nice girl and she never asked anything of anyone unless it was out of kindness for another. Cid however sighed and returned to his computer, there was little he could do but put his mind into something that could benefit the town.

---

Nearby Yuffie lay on the roof of the local Inn, staring up at the bright blue sky above her. Orin was as far away from her as he could get and she may never see him again, she couldn't help but feel a little bit miserable.

Yuffie shook her head at that thought. 'I can't think that way! I'm sure he'll be back some day... and maybe when he does he'll be more in control of himself better. Yeah! Sure he will!'

Yuffie was trying to convince herself, but even after psyching herself up like that she wasn't totally sure if Orin would ever come back. But even if she didn't think that he would she still had to have some hope to see her friend again. After all Sora never lost hope when he and Riku were separated, why should she loose hope? now that she had renewed her own sense of hope she laid back on the roof and smiled up at the clear blue sky. However a grumpy sounding clearing of someone's throat came from the street below her. Yuffie peeked over the edge to see Leon looking up at her with a two by four on his shoulder.

"Hey Yuffie!" Leon shouted up with an authoritive look at the ninja girl. "Get down here and help us! You're pulling a double shift of brick laying for all the work you skipped out on by going on that little adventure with Sora, Riku, and Kairi!"

Yuffie slunk back onto the roof with a childish groan. Leon was going to have her working all day... Maybe she should've gone with Orin. Being in a world filled with Heartless sounded better than doing all that work...

END.

Roxasoutloud: I had that planned since chapter 5 but I didn't think I could pull off the sheer awesomeness that could be. That needs to be in the next KH game, and I'm not sure how I'd work out the dynamics of Drive. Turning a game into a fic often means you have to tell people how it works or change it so that it suits your fic.


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